* * * * * * *
The screen on the wall popped on in the darkened room.
“Garrett, are you there? Oh, of course, this has to be a one-way conversation. We’re about two years away from Earth, Garrett, so it’ll be at least that long from now when you get this. Garrett, there is something wrong. I’m -- I’m aging! I know I’m pretty old, but this isn’t supposed to happen like this! I tried taking TNF again but it hasn’t seemed to have any effect. I guess we should have developed some kind of ‘booster’ shot.” A pause. “Dammit man, the drug is wearing off! And I’m not the only one. The rest of the crew is looking to me for answers. I don’t know what to tell them. Garrett, if you get this, I hope you’re working on it.” The man in the wall closed his eyes. “My God, even if you are, how could we get it in time?”
His eyes open again, he leaned forward. “Garrett, what did we do? Did we miscalculate?” Another pause, as though waiting for an answer. An answer he knew would not come. “I don’t even know if you will get this . . . ” He slumped in his chair. Then the light on the wall went off.
Though the transmission was received in the residence of Garrett Lanier some two-plus years after it was sent, his corpse, collapsed in the chair opposite the H.I., heard nothing. For Garrett, forever Earthbound, and Bernard Truscott, dying even while hurtling through infinity, mortality had won the race. Time had, after all, run out.
The End
About the Author
“In the Name of the Sun” can be found here:
You can sample “Ghosts” here:
A second novel concerning a showdown between the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a radical president of the U.S., entitled Duly Constituted Authority, is available on Smashwords as well:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/213724
You can find me on the Independent Authors Network at: https://www.independentauthornetwork.com/alex-drinkwater-jr.html
on Twitter: @alexdh2o
on Facebook: Alex Drinkwater Jr.
my website is:
https://www.alexdrinkwater.com
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