Adventures of the Starship Satori: Book 1-6 Complete Library
Page 70
“Damn you,” she said. “It should have been any of us instead.”
Deciding she was as good as she was going to get, Beth glanced around the tiny apartment. It wasn’t much. No one at the base had elaborate living quarters, except perhaps the general in command of the whole thing. About five hundred square feet gave her room for a bed, a desk with a computer, her wardrobe, a closet sized bathroom and a tiny kitchenette.
It was enough. She spent most of her time out of the room working anyway. Meals were mostly in the dining facility. Beth used the kitchen more for brewing a late night cup of Earl Grey than for actual cooking, although the microwave oven was nice to have around. Having her own bathroom, though? A luxury she didn’t want to live without if she could avoid it.
The place was home, for now at least. Where she would go when the construction was complete on this ship seemed unclear. Beth knew she was going to have work. There was no one alive with more first-hand experience working with interstellar drives than she had. Her experiences were unique, and pretty much everyone involved in aerospace wanted her working for them. For now she was sticking with the US Air Force. It wasn’t for the pay. She could make ten times as much from Lockheed-Martin. But this was where the action was. Where it would likely remain for the next few years, at least. So this was where she had to be.
Beth headed down the hall and hopped a lift. She thought about windows while she shot down five levels to the hangar deck. She missed having windows to let in the sun. Living under a bloody mountain might be an excellent defensive position, but it had some serious downsides, too.
The doors snapped open, breaking into her thoughts. Andrew Wakefield was outside the door. His clothing was even more austere than hers. He’d gone for solid black, broken only by flashes of silver on the suit, tie, and cuffs. No one would wonder at his wearing black. Not today. Andy looked tired. There were circles under his eyes, and Beth wondered if he’d been sleeping enough. His sandy hair was neatly groomed, and he smiled when he saw her. He’d clearly been waiting for her, and he offered an arm as she stepped off the lift.
“Since Dan is busy today, I thought maybe I would stand in?” he asked, quirking an eyebrow.
She took his arm with a smile. “Always happy to see you, Andy. How’s work?”
“Busy. I don’t think anyone knew how much was involved in running John’s businesses until he wasn’t there doing it anymore,” he said. “I have some massive shoes to fill.”
“You’ll do fine,” she said.
“It’s not every day you get handed controlling interest in a major international company,” Andy said, shaking his head. “I can’t help but wonder why me? There are so many people who could have done this better.”
“He picked you because he loved you,” Beth said. “And because he trusted you to do the right thing.”
“I know. That doesn’t make it any easier.”
They were all dealing with things in their own ways. Beth had gone back to her oldest and truest way of dealing with emotional problems. She’d repressed it all by dumping herself into her work. She smiled wryly at the thought. It wasn’t the healthiest defensive mechanism, but it had worked out OK for her so far.
Andy was having his own crisis, and he’d have to handle it in his own manner. Beth just hoped that she would be able to help him along the way. They’d been through too much together for her to look away now.
“How’s Dan?” he asked, bringing the conversation back around.
“Haven’t seen him much,” she replied. Not without a little pang. That surprised her, even though she supposed it shouldn’t have. They’d been divorced for years, but then life had brought them back together. Now they were apart again, and she missed him.
The hangar was the biggest room in the base, which is why they’d picked it to house the event. The massive space had been designed to accommodate the sub-orbital fighter wing the Air Force created. Intended to battle other Earth nations for control of low earth orbit, the fighters had been suddenly put to an entirely different use when alien ships attacked Earth.
Most of them had been destroyed in the process.
The result was they had a ton of room available, which was a big plus. Half of the hangar had been converted over to the construction of a new ship. Or the rebuild of an old ship. The truth was something in the middle.
Several years ago, an expedition to Luna prospecting for Helium-3 had come across something entirely unexpected. While looking for deep caverns they could expand into a living area, the team had found something more: an ancient alien base, buried underneath hundreds of meters of lunar regolith. They’d come back and explored the place in secret and found more than they dared dream was possible.
Buried in the base was an ancient starship. The ship itself had been severely damaged by battle and time. But the ship’s star drive was intact. Capable of creating a stable wormhole between two points of space, the drive could carry the ship to distant star systems.
The owner of that company had kept the ship a closely guarded secret. He’d recruited friends. Beth had led the effort to rebuild the ruined ship. Dan had flown it. Andy had come along for security. There had been others as well, but John Caraway - the billionaire owner of more corporations than Beth could ever count - had been the link which bound them all together.
Rows of chairs were set up in front of a podium for viewers to sit while others were speaking. There were hundreds of seats, and for a moment Beth despaired at finding anyone she knew. A friendly wave from the front caught her eye, and she smiled in relief and recognition. Dan had saved seats for both herself and Andy next to him in the front row.
She settled in between the two men. “They’ve been tight-lipped about command placements. Any word?” she asked. She’d heard scuttlebutt, but rumor was only worth so much.
“Not that I could count on,” Dan said. He seemed tense, and she understood why. John had given him a shot at returning to the life he loved - flying ships in space. He’d put back on an Air Force uniform again in hopes of keeping that job now that the military was involved, but nothing was guaranteed.
She reached over and took his hand, giving him a little squeeze. They waited that way, both of them hoping for…something. Beth wasn’t sure what she was hoping for. She felt empty, in a way. She’d built the starship Satori from scraps of an ancient alien vessel and human ingenuity. Then she’d been put in charge of rebuilding the ship after it was torn almost to pieces defending the Earth. Now that job was done. Beth wasn’t sure what could possibly be next for her. She didn’t even know what she wanted to happen next.
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About the Author
USA Today bestselling author Kevin McLaughlin has written more than three dozen science fiction and fantasy novels, along with more short stories than he can easily count. Kevin can be found most days in downtown Boston, working on the next novel. His bestselling Blackwell Magic fantasy series, Accord science fiction series, Valhalla Online LitRPG series, and the fan-favorite Starship Satori series are ongoing.
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