SWNOVELS Chapter 33
The town of Black Rock, population ten thousand, was gone. Annihilated utterly by the orbital bombardment. There was no smoking crater; for Stragdoc’s atomic displacement cannon simply reduced the place to ash. A particularly poetic reporter referred to the place as “a blasted heath”, and the name stuck for a time.
Until the Global Alliance selected the site to serve as a war memorial. Layers of earth were shoveled over the ashes of families, buildings, gardens, markers being placed over the approximate locations of the victims’ homes. Every building had a marker placed at its former lot, a message to an uncaring cosmos that these offices, schools, hotels, had held people, people whose lives had mattered to someone, somewhere.
At the center of this vast graveyard, a cenotaph was erected, recording the names of every pilot who had died fighting to prevent another massacre. One of the most prominent names was that of Lieutenant John Alex, Tazer Five.
At the dedication ceremony, newly appointed Admiral Christopher St. George spoke at length of Alex’s bravery, along with every single person who had died in defense of planetary freedom. As he spoke, he spotted a veiled woman kneeling at the location of one of the markers.
Following his speech, he made his way there. “Ashpool?”
She nodded. “Tell me it was worth it.”
He sighed. “I can’t. We couldn’t have surrendered. But...all these people.”
He read the marker, for a high school. “Tell me you didn’t have children here.”
“In nineteen ninety-eight,” she began. “A disturbed young man named Paul Stragdoc led a handful of fanatical followers to take the people of this school hostage in an insane attempt to show the world that he was best suited to lead. A love struck young woman eventually realized the horror he planned, knocked him unconscious, and evacuated everyone before the explosives Paul planted went off.”
Chris was thunderstruck.
“So the school was rebuilt, supposedly over the vaporized corpse of the man who tried to use it to rule the world. A symbol for freedom or some nonsense like that. Until he came back.”
Chris did not know what to say.
Ashpool got to her feet. “Congratulations on your promotion, Admiral. You deserve it.”
“I could use an advisor. He’s coming back eventually. We both know it.”
The woman smiled at him. “Thanks, but no. I...need some time alone. Besides, I rather want to look around out there. Big universe and all.”
Chris understood. “Just so long as you come back to tell me about it.”
Ashpool saluted him. “Count on it, Admiral.”
As she turned to leave, Chris had to ask, “What’s your name, anyway? Your real name?”
Jennifer did not answer. She was thinking about a series of coordinates. And a star named Sigma Octantis.
And what she might find there.