The bullet holes were all up near the ceiling, over the windows, well above head level. Ignoring the guard, Alec bent down on one knee beside Angela, next to his father.
“Why?” he asked. “I would have saved you. I wouldn’t let them take you.”
Douglas managed to grin at his son. “How do you...” a gasp of pain, “...how do you think I found out about the cancer rate in the settlement?”
Alec’s head drooped.
“Only had... a few months left,” Douglas panted. “Sorry to scare your boys... tried not to hurt them...”
He closed his eyes.
Angela collapsed over the dead body. Tears won’t help him, Alec said silently. Then he realized that the tears are always for the living, not the dead. All right then. Cry for both of us. Alec couldn’t cry. Not now. Perhaps not ever. But surely not now. There was too much to be done. Too much unfinished work hung in the balance.
He straightened up and turned to the guards. None of them had moved a millimeter. They were staring at Alec, their own lives showing in their eyes.
“It’s all right,” he told them softly. “You saved us all a lot of trouble.”
They did not relax, but that did not matter.
“You,” he pointed to the one nearest the door. “Get Jameson and Will Russo here. There’s work to do.”
Then he glanced down at Angela’s sobbing form. To the other two guards he said, “Get outside and don’t let anyone in here until I tell you to.”
They hurried out of the house. The guard who had been upstairs had to step, shakily, over Douglas’ body. Then he ran to the door and left.
Alec knelt down beside Angela again and took her tear-streaked face in his hands. “It’s time,” he said, as gently as he knew how.
She gazed at him searchingly. “Time for what?”
“To begin.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ben Bova is the author of nearly 125 futuristic novels and nonfiction books about science and high technology.
In his various writings, Dr. Bova has predicted the Space Race of the 1960s, solar power satellites, the discovery of organic chemicals in interstellar space, virtual reality, human cloning, the Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars), the advent of international peacekeeping forces, the discovery of ice on the Moon, electronic book publishing and zero-gravity sex.
Dr. Bova received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation in 2005, “for fueling mankind’s imagination regarding the wonders of outer space.” His 2006 novel TITAN received the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel of the year, and he received the 2008 Robert A. Heinlein Award “for his outstanding body of work in the field of literature.”
Dr. Bova has been involved in science and high technology since the very beginnings of the space age. President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past president of Science Fiction Writers of America, Inc., Dr. Bova was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has been a member of the Arizona Astronomy Board.
He is a columnist for the Naples Daily News and a widely-popular lecturer. Earlier in his career, he was an award-winning editor and an executive in the aerospace industry. He has worked with film makers and television producers such as Woody Allen, George Lucas, and Gene Roddenberry.
His “Grand Tour” novels, including his award-winning TITAN, show how the human race will expand through the solar system, opening a new era of wealth and opportunity – and conflict. His nonfiction books, such as IMMORTALITY and FAINT ECHOES, DISTANT STARS have been honored by organizations such as the American Librarians’ Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has won six Science Fiction Achievement Awards (Hugos) and many other awards for writing.
More books from Ben Bova are available at: http://ReAnimus.com/authors/benbova
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