by Mike Smith
“I thought, I thought, Jon and I could finally talk, put the past behind us…” Sofia gave a mournful wail, “but it seems like our past finally caught up with Jon first.”
Protocol be damned, Paul thought enfolding her in a tight embrace. He could feel her tears staining his uniform, but it did not matter as his own tears joined hers.
Not a word was spoken on the flight deck, the only sound the occasional cry from Sofia as the crew stood at attention saluting a man that they had all respected, and loved. A man who had made the ultimate sacrifice in order to ensure their lives.
*****
Many hours later, after the ceremony on the flight deck had broken up and the crew had dispersed, each to remember, and mourn Jon in their own way, Miranda found herself in his office staring out of the massive opening. Miranda was not sure how long she had been staring out into space, when the chime to the office interrupted her thoughts.
“Come!” Miranda called, wondering who would be looking for her. She was taken aback at the sight of Sofia Aurelius stepping curiously into the office. She still looked pale and withdrawn after being broken the news of Jon’s death hours earlier, but at least it looked like she was coping. Miranda meanwhile had absolutely no idea what to say or do. How did one even address this woman? Sofia? Miss. Aurelius? Madame President? Princess?
Her hesitation must have shown as Sofia offered her a weak smile stating. “Please, you can call me Sofia. Paul told me that you were most likely to be here…”
“I didn’t know where else to go…” Miranda replied hesitantly. “Jon spent so much time here, staring out of this viewport. I thought it would help me feel closer to him…”
“Paul mentioned that you and Jon were close,” Sofia replied sympathetically.
“Not as close as you and Jon were…” Miranda was quick to add, glancing away so that the elder woman could not see her flaming cheeks.
Sofia looked at Miranda with surprise. “The thought never crossed my mind…”
“He loved you, you know? Even at the very end.”
“I just wish that I knew why he left in the first-place,” Sofia replied wistfully. “But I guess that I will never know. There will never be another Jon Radec, everybody I have ever met since, I compared to him and found them all lacking.”
Miranda had no response to that statement, instead choosing to look back at the starscape outside, wondering if she would become like Sofia, always alone, always comparing any other man against Jon. Looking at the stars Miranda wondered what it was about this view that drew Jon’s attention time and time again, sometimes for hours at an end. Noticing her own reflection being projected back at herself, Miranda wondered if Jon had ever actually been looking outside, or instead contemplating his own, internal, demons.
As the two women stared out, separated by only a few feet, but from backgrounds light-years apart, both women’s thoughts were fixed on the same man. One reflecting on a past that would now forever remain lost. The other reflecting on a future that now could never be.
*****
The stars shone brightly, a pure cleansing white light that briefly banished the dark and cold space surrounding the station. The search and rescue vessels that continued to search the surrounding space for any remaining survivors interrupted the light only briefly.
Further out, a brief flash of light briefly illuminated a darker patch of space. It was an intermittent flash of light, this not from the surrounding stars, but the failing emergency beacon on the escape pod as it tumbled and fell though the darkness of space.
End of Book One.
The Redemption Trilogy continues with Book Two “The Sunfire” available Spring 2013.
For news, reviews, images and other information, please visit the Facebook page -
http://www.facebook.com/LPraetorian
Or follow the author at -
http://twitter.com/LPraetorian
Or email the author at -
[email protected]
Thank you for your feedback. Please feel free to leave a review.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Epilogue
