“Even without me,” she replied, smiling. “You’ve gotten on with your life, even if you don’t know it. Stop mourning my loss and the loss of what could have been. What you made instead is great and wonderful.”
“That’s what I finally needed to hear,” he said as his throat began to go dry, as the years of sadness ended with this moment of joy.
She kissed him, in the same deep, passionate way they had kissed in their college years.
Then suddenly, she was gone.
After they finished planting the bombs, Andrew, George, and Ed scrambled aboard the Rocky Road. An hour later, the Rocky Road soared away from the asteroid. They’d go beyond the range of the blast before detonating the bombs, but set them off soon enough to avoid danger to the oncoming Long Island.
A day later, the Rocky Road reached a safe distance from Odette. As planned, the Long Island was still out of range. Andrew smiled; they had outrun Chang.
Andrew typed the detonation code into the transmitter. He hit the “send” button.
“It’s done,” Andrew said. He began the countdown under his breath.
“We have a strong signal from the probe watching Odette,” said Ed. He sent the asteroid’s image to all the monitors.
They watched the bomb explode. Although fragments of rock flew in all directions, most of the asteroid stayed intact. Amidst a gray cloud of pulverized stone, slowly but surely, Odette shifted its path.
Aboard the Long Island, Colonel Chang and his crew silently watched Odette shift into its new orbit. Never before had they seen an asteroid move amidst a cloud of its own debris.
“This damn well better have worked,” Chang said, breaking the silence.
“Colonel, your orders?” said Major Peters, the ship’s first officer.
“Plot a course to intercept Odette,” said Chang. “I want to be sure this trajectory is completely safe. We still might have to destroy it.”
As the Long Island continued toward Odette, deep space probes monitored Odette and sent data to Space Station Reagan. With the data, asteroid trackers began mapping Odette’s new orbit. Would Odette hit something sooner or later?
A day later, Mission Control sent the answer to Chang. “A one in a million chance, and they got it,” he reported to General Boyd.
Back on Space Station Reagan, Mission Control sent the same relieved message to all ships and probes: Odette had changed its orbit and no longer threatened to strike Reagan or any other station.
The Long Island was preparing to head home, leaving Odette alone, when she received a distress signal from the Rocky Road. The rock blasters had returned to Odette for reasons unknown and now were in trouble. Calls to the Rocky Road only returned a recorded mayday message. Chang had no choice but to respond. What could be going wrong aboard the Rocky Road now?
Andrew looked around. George was telling Rachel about her mother’s vacation to Spain last year. At his station, Ed explained to his dad how probes and beacons sent images back to Earth and traveling ships. George and Ed were making up for lost time with their loved ones, talking about family and friends, hopes and plans.
Sally, still dressed as a Ducks cheerleader, came back into the control room. Andrew knew he could imagine her in other clothes, but he wanted to remember her this way. The college years had been the best time of their lives, when the present was full of life and happiness, when the future seemed eternally bright.
Sally sat down beside Andrew and took his hand. “Why did you return to us?” she asked.
“To bring Chang to the asteroid,” said Andrew. “I’ve known Chang for several years, and he’s always sad. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s someone in his past. If it is, he needs to come here.”
Shortly after the Long Island landed on Odette, Colonel Chang and six commandos quietly boarded the Rocky Road. As the commandos took control of the engineering sections, Chang went to the control room.
Chang raised his helmet visor. “We received your distress signal,” he said. “What’s wrong, is anyone injured—oh, my God.”
In addition to Andrew, George, and Ed, he saw other people on the ship: a woman in a red jacket; a man in blue jeans; and a girl in a cheerleader uniform.
“You’re just figments of my imagination,” Chan insisted.
“Captain Ross reporting for duty, sir!” someone announced from behind him.
Chang spun around. A soldier, dressed in green jungle combat camouflage, stood there. His name tag read “ROSS.” He was unscratched and alive, the way he had been when Chang last saw him.
Chang put a hand on Ross’ shoulder—his solid shoulder.
Chang tried fighting back the tears, but a single drop rolled down his cheek.
“Oh, dear God, why can’t you be real?” he asked. “Why couldn’t I take you home to your wife? Instead, I had only your dog tags to take to her…”
One night in the U. S. camp in Haiti, Chang had heard strange sounds, like someone stumbling through the garbage dump just outside the camp. Change had ordered Captain Warren Ross to investigate the sounds. As he walked into the garbage dump, Ross had stepped on a land mine and been blown to pieces. Ross had been married only ten months.
If only he hadn’t ordered Ross to investigate the sounds…
Chang had never fully recovered from meeting Ross’ wife Karen and their newborn son Daniel. He had given her Ross’ dog tags, and soon afterward, applied for space station service, away from Earth’s fighting nations.
After Chang ordered the commandos to return to the Long Island, he talked to Ross in the control room, oblivious to the others, both living and dead. Finally, Chang heard the words he had needed to hear for nineteen years.
“Karen knew the risks, Major,” Ross said, calling Chang by his rank during the Haitian War. “Her father and grandfather were both in the Army. She knew we could be killed in action anytime. I’m sure she never blamed the Army or you.”
“Thank you, Captain,” Chang said. “Let me say again that I was proud to have you under my command. I wish I had been able to tell you at the time.”
Chang and Ross exchanged salutes. The colonel sighed and closed his eyes. When he opened his eyes, Ross was gone.
Sally, Rachel, and Dad left again, leaving the three rock blasters alone with their memories—and Colonel Chang.
“I’m gong to drop the charges of willful endangerment of a space station,” said Chang, staring out the window at the stars above Odette.
Andrew joined Chang at the window. “Thank you, Colonel,” said Andrew.
“It’s the least I could do, considering you’ve lost five million gold units in scavengers’ commissions,” said Chang with a wry smile.
Andrew nodded. “That’s a lot of money, but we can’t put a value on this asteroid. It’s priceless.”
“And mysterious,” said Chang. “We know nothing about it. Is it one of the legendary Siren Stones? Could there be more of them? Where did it come from? Did someone send it to us? Is it alive?”
“Do you think the asteroid is alive?” Andrew asked.
“I don’t know,” Chang answered, “but it doesn’t matter. It does something wonderful, and that’s what counts. You’ve done the human race a big favor.”
“How’s that?”
Chang gazed at the stars again. “You’ve saved something the human race desperately needs: a place where people can make peace with their pasts.”
George and Ed joined them at the window. Up in the black sky, there seemed as many stars as there were lost souls in the human race, each wishing for a chance to say unsaid words.