Halfway between Neptune and Pluto, the full realization of his situation hit Flash Meridian. He was nearing the edge of our solar system. All transmissions from the rescue party had ceased, and he knew he had to take charge of his own destiny.
Pluto had been visible for some time, and was now looming larger in vast, empty space. It was his last chance. To approach close enough to be held by Pluto’s gravitational pull long enough to slingshot back toward the sun. The sun now appeared as a distant star. It would take precise calculations to aim himself at it, and he would be relying on pure, dumb luck. Still, it was his only hope. There was a good chance that he would impact Pluto. There was a chance that his ship, the Trans-Neptunian Interloper, would be torn to bits in the attempt. There was a possibility that the human body would not survive the tremendous g-forces involved in the semi-orbit. None of this mattered. His demise would be guaranteed if he stayed with his current course.
Flash sat, hurtling through the void at previously unimagined speed, yet feeling no sensation of speed whatever.
MEANWHILE…
Ash stared, bewildered, at Crystal, unable to move or speak. Her movements were deliberate and efficient.
Ash’s panic subsided. Whether she was a dream or not, he was comforted by her presence.
Now I’ll take care of your friend, she said
Krate’s affliction was no accident. Someone had sabotaged the mission by planting a chip in Krate’s brainstem. By this time, Krate actually posed no threat to Ash. His own torment was so great he writhed in violent spasms.
When Crystal cut the chip loose, he fell, still, unconscious.
Ash surmised correctly, that this was the doing of Major Sly Wormhole. Once in deep space, Krate was supposed to kill Ash before self-destructing. The mission was unsuccessful, but the chip was removed before any permanent damage was done to either man.
MEANWHILE…
Flash looked up to see a sky dominated by the frozen surface of Pluto. Never had he seen a more inhospitable place. He looked away, wishing that he would not become a part of that landscape.
Stress on the TNI was building as Pluto’s pull increased. It was all Flash could do to remain conscious under the strain.
Soon it was over. The shaking. The Noise. The sickening force. The computer indicated that he was now traveling away from Pluto much faster than he had approached it. The sun was barely visible, but it lay in the general direction he had hoped to find it. He paused only for a moment to celebrate this victory. He had to prepare once again for warp. It would take decades off his return trip.
Though he had had no signal from Earth for some time, he continued to broadcast reports from his tiny cocoon in space. The thought that someone might hear made him feel less alone.
MEANWHILE…
Krate and Ash awoke in the safety of their camp on J-IV. All was back to normal – as it was when they landed to retrieve core samples. Sorry, said Krate. It’s all good, Ash responded.
From earliest childhood, Flash Meridian had been captivated by the night sky. After the sun dipped below the western horizon, he would stand in the treeless yard of his parents' home and gaze at stars… planets… the moon… and dream of what lay beyond the highest traces of Earth's atmosphere. Now he is engulfed in a night that never ends. Earth's air-clouded view of the stars paled in comparison to the blazing orbs that looked like pin-pricks way back then. It seemed only natural that he would devote his life to the exploration of space and the radiation, temperature and other conditions of space.
Since the beginning of the American space program, Chrysler Corporation had played an active role in constructing the powerful engines used to launch astronauts into orbit, or to the moon. NASA had chosen Chrysler to produce Saturn 1 and Saturn 1B launch vehicles, which the company assembled at the Michoud Operations Plant in Louisiana — former producer of
diesel engines for the M-48 medium tank during the Korean Conflict.
The NASA/Chrysler partnership would last well into the 1970s. In 1971, Chrysler prepared a Saturn 1B launch vehicle that would serve to lift NASA's 58-foot-long laboratory into orbit around Earth, and another that would carry three astronauts on a mission to rendezvous with Skylab in 1973. The 1975 Apollo-Soyuz mission would be the Chrysler Space Division's final rocket launch. During this project, another Saturn 1B carried three American astronauts in an Apollo spacecraft, eventually meeting up with a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in Earth orbit.