“Eight.”
“ We’re all on the death list” he says, his eyes widening, his teeth glistening white, eerie, his voice half choked. “ We’re all on the death list from the blow. That’s what else I destroyed.”
“Six.”
The ship is beginning its yaw, I can feel the pulse coming up beneath us, the console a phantasmagoria of lights.
“Initial on number three,” Werhner says. “Go with it.”
I lurch to the console, push the thrusters with my wounded hand, shove through the bandage into blood and bone, burned insulation in the atmosphere, my vision swimming, the pulse a mirror of the hologram, I think of Collette, Collette, Collette.
“Three, gonna hit it.”
“The woman, Werhner! The woman!”
“What… woman?” I hear Werhner say and I begin falling, falling. I see Cooper ripping at the cable rack from program, his large frame hunched in dim light, ripping.
“Two.”
“Alive!” I scream.
“One. Coming…”
ALARM ALARM ALARM ALARM ALARM
IMPACT EVENT IMPACT EVENT IMPACT EVENT IMPACT EVENT INTRUSION EVENT INTRUSION EVENT INTRUSION DAMAGE CONTROL DAMAGE CONTROL DAMAGE CONTROL
ALARM ALARM ALARM ALARM ALARM
IMPACT EVENT IMPACT EVENT IMPACT EVENT IMPACT EVENT IMPACT EVENT
ALARM ALARM ALARM ALARM ALARM
IMPACT EVENT IMPACT EVENT IMPACT EVENT IMPACT EVENT IMPACT EVENT
ALARM ALARM ALARM ALARM ALARM
The hatch to program blows open with a rushing scream, hangs open like a tongue. Through it I see a howling, whirling sun filling the gulf of night, a huge sun, growing larger, a whirlpool of light bleaching my vision in the fine atom snow of the cosmos into which I spin orange flames at my feet, falling, falling. My bones are exploding, yellow-white to white light vision, pure white, white light vision.
Still image: a woman frozen in space, fixed in inky blackness, the funnel of infinity pierced by diamond points of light, stars in the celestial sea. She floats as a swimmer, her palms flat and forward. Her hair streams behind—yet no breeze. Her expression intense and incomprehensible, lips slightly parted to show the glistening edges of teeth—a kiss or a cry—silent in the void.
Copyright
Copyright © 1979, by Robert Onopa
All rights reserved
Published by arrangement with the author’s agent
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Printed in the United States of America Berkley Edition, MARCH, 1979
Kindle Edition created from the Berkley original by John Michener of Mediaspring.com, February, 2011.