Somebody Else's Space Program
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Chapter Sixty Six
"Striving, flying, people try to rise above it all
"World is turning, fires burning, all within my view..."
Launch Site Seventeen, on the edge of the facility, was close to an old railway line that had been used to bring in materials early in the program.
"The launch is Tuesday. This will be the first mission that is primarily scientific -- we need more information on how different materials and biologicals behave in microgravity." The tour guide sent the accompanying guard after a youngster who wandered off, then stood and counted heads to be sure no one else had lost his way.
One of the teen-aged boys shoved another one. The teacher with them started screaming at the top of her lungs, as two more boys took sides and started pummeling each other and the original pair.
The guide got on her radio and called for more of an escort. "I'm cutting the tour short. We can send the innocent bystanders out with the next tour."
---
Dual Flight Three. The Command Pilot was Corchuelos, the Pilot was Belanagare. 'Keetays was acting as CapCom at Mission Control.
"Minus ten minutes and holding. Final go/no go."
Reports. Flight finally reported, "We're go for launch, Director."
"Resume the countdown."
Envyss pressed a cup of coffee into Ross's hand. Ross sipped carefully at the hot, sweet liquid. "Thank you. Round me up a couple of sandwiches, would you?"
"As soon as the bird's up."
Ross nodded. "Of course. 'Keetays, how are they doing out there on the pad?"
"Everything's nominal, Director. Belanagare has the binoculars out and is watching the waterfowl circling. I hope they have the sense to clear out when the engines start."
"The sense, sure. Are they going to have the speed to get clear before it takes off?"
"I don't see anything we can do about that."
Envyss, "Falcons."
"What?"
"An hour before launch, take a falcon out there. Five minutes' flying will scare the rest of the birds from the area, and then we bring her in where she's safe. Maybe leave a falcon decoy on top of the launch tower, just in case."
Ross nodded. "Arrange it for the next flight."
"Noted."
"Minus five minutes and counting."
"Thirty seconds and counting."
"Eight seconds -- Ignition sequence has started. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Clamps released -- we have liftoff."
Splash of fire from the base of the rocket, smoke/steam... but it was the wrong shape. "Director, we've lost first stage telemetry."
"Get them out of there," Ross snapped.
The rocket blew before Ross's last word. The escape tower lifted, but the fireball overtook the capsule. Then the shock wave hit the blockhouse. Flight said, "We've lost all the telemetry."
Ross could hear Envyss softly praying behind him. "Lock the boards. I want all of the data as soon as possible." Sirens as rescue vehicles cleared their garages in the blockhouse.
---
The cockpit voice recorder didn't have anything to add that hadn't been heard in Mission Control. The instrument recorder had been right next to the primary explosion and was torn apart. "There's very little chance we can retrieve any data we don't already have."
The capsule had been breached by the explosion, but the bodies were in the same condition as many a plane crash victim's: battered, burned, but recognizably human.
"Josgoroth has proclaimed a national month of mourning." Envyss chewed on his lower lip. "I'm to officiate at the funerals. He'll be attending."
"Officiate? Not just speak?"
"Yes. I'll be gone for a day or so. Unless you absolutely need me here -- I can plead my duty to you overrides his wishes."
"Your people need you, Envyss. I have work to do here."
Envyss bowed, and turned and left. Ross picked up his clipboard and continued to make notes.
---
Three days. Ross turned off the radio -- what the hruss considered suitable music for mourning mostly turned his stomach with its weird pitches and rhythms. "You've got the preliminary report?"
"Yes. It looks like sabotage."
Sabotage. More murder. "Let me see the report."
Ross read. Most of the device had been disassembled in the explosion, but a piece of it had been thrown far enough to survive. "Not the same as the car bomb."
"Not quite. The triggering mechanism was quite different. This time, the material was not reactive until it reached a certain temperature." More details.
---
The funeral itself was an invitation to a mass assassination plot. "One bomb and they'll wipe out all of the royal family. And half the clan heads. The only ones left will be the clans who don't support the Lord Protectors politics."
"Not quite. Look at the list. None of the heirs are attending. We might be in for regencies, but no clan is going to be wiped out."
Ross looked over the proposed schedule. "Missing man formation flyover. I always hated those."
Flight shrugged. "You hate them because you understand them. So do I. But the men are entitled."
"Oh, yes. What's the schedule look like for our next launch."
"We're giving it an extra month to work on the new security procedures, and to train Gallagher and Cisihlte on the experiments that were supposed to be done on Three."
"Yes."
---
A twenty-piece marching band in black, with muffled drums but unmuffled reed instruments came first down the wide avenue toward the temple.
There followed a flatbed wagon, painted black, drawn by a team of black horses led by an officer of the Lord Protector's household, in mourning uniform. Two coffins on the wagon, flag-draped. And walking behind, a small unit of liveried guards and the Lord Protector. With Josgoroth walked Ross and the partners of the two men.
At a small distance behind Josgoroth walked other dignitaries, foreign and domestic.
At the temple, there was a lone bugle call. And then planes overhead... two formations of four planes in lopsided V. Then the lead plane in each peeled off and joined its formation behind to leave the lead position empty. Ross shuddered.
The space flier corps supplied the pallbearers that carried the coffins up the temple stairs where Envyss waited. It took Ross an instant to recognize his partner -- he looked ten years older, exhausted, pale. Josgoroth leaned over and spoke in a low voice. "He's had no food and no sleep for days. He's permitted both after the service, and whatever other comfort you want to offer him."
"I understand. Why did you choose him to do it?"
"He is one of their own."
---
The service was lengthy, and in an archaic hruss that Ross gave up on understanding, except that it was in Envyss's voice. Again, at last, the lone bugle call.
Josgoroth held Ross back from joining the procession outside. "No. Your duties are here, now. Go to Envyss."
Ross ducked his head. "Lord Protector."
---
A small apartment in the back of the temple, and the guards let him in at just a glance. Inside, Ross could hear the shower running. There was an unopened bottle of wine and two glasses on the table in the "living room" area. There was only a thin curtain separating off the "bedroom."
Envyss came out of the bathroom, toweling his hair dry, wearing nothing else. Ross grinned at him. "What would you have done if there had been someone else here?"
"I'd have had the heads of a couple of guards. They signaled that it was you by yourself."
"Okay. Should I pour?"
"I'm not sure I dare have any, not until I get something to eat." The towel dropped and Envyss was in Ross's arms, just holding on tightly. The younger man was trembling, and not from the temperature. "I don't want to ever have to do that again."
"I do not know anyone who could have honored them more."
Envyss shuddered, then relaxed. "Thank you. I think that is what I needed to hear."
"Do you still want to go on your mission?"
"I have to. If _I_ don't trust your rockets, how can I ask anyone else to?"
"The problem wasn't my rocket. It was sabotage."
Silence, then a soft keening. Then something soft-voiced but dark -- a priest, asking for justice for the slain innocents. Something was warm and wet where Envyss's head rested against his shoulder -- tears?
---
The lovemaking was slow and thorough. Envyss was attentive -- almost too attentive, from Ross's point of view. "I need some room to breathe."
"I need to feel you here with me. I have been surrounded by ghosts for days."
"I can understand that. I think we should go somewhere else. Somewhere with no memories."
"I can't leave for several days. There are still ceremonies."
Ross closed his eyes. "Can you get out of them?"
"I don't know."
"Let's put it this way -- who are your most important duties to?"
"To the gods, of course. After that, to you."
Ross nodded slowly. "I understand. I can't stay here with you."
"Not while you have an investigation to run, no. Stay the night with me, then go. I'll come home when I can."
---
Dinner was served by a pair of underpriests who kept peeking at Ross when they hoped he wasn't watching. Finally Envyss shooed them out of the room. "I'll take care of him. Go."
Ross broke up laughing when they scurried away. "What was that about?"
"You're the rose. Some people automatically think of a rose as female. In nature, they have both sexes. Some people just don't pay attention."
"So they are wondering how feminine I am?"
Envyss looked startled, "No, I don't think so. Most of them have seen you. It's just..."
"I'm a myth."
"Yes."
"Well, I'm a hungry myth, and it's your job to feed me, right? Get to it."
---
Early in the morning -- too early from Ross's point of view -- it had been nearly dawn when Envyss had let him sleep. A soft knock on the door. Envyss climbed over his partner, pulled on a robe, and pulled the curtain across the opening behind him. "Yes?"
"A messenger from the Lord Protector to the Stavehleth Envyss."
"One moment." Envyss pulled on trousers and opened the door.
Ross rolled over. He could see through the thin cloth into the rest of the living space. Messenger. His bones ached, unhappily, but his muscles ached for a happier reason. He slid to the side of the bed just in time to see Envyss stumble against the messenger, and both of them fall to the floor.
_Through_ the curtain, first to see if his partner was still breathing -- yes, although bleeding -- then to see if the other was still moving -- no, and never again. Direct pressure until Ross could reach over and find anything cloth to cover the wound and hold the pad against the cut. "Envyss. What happened?"
"Call security. And get that door locked."
Door first, with furniture in front of it for good measure. Then security, and medical attention, rush.
"It looks worse than it is. I'm just happy I answered the door instead of you."
"Why?"
"Because you're not replaceable at this stage. I'm sorry I had to kill him to stop him. I wish I could ask him some pointed questions right now."
---
Noise outside. Envyss waited until someone arrived he could identify personally by voice. "Do you have a medic with you?"
"Yes. Ross said you had been hurt."
Since only someone on the other end of the phone could have known that... Ross moved the furniture away from the door, stood with a staff in his hand to strike anyone acting suspiciously.
The medic stuck his head in cautiously first, saw a seated Envyss holding a reddened rag against his side, and headed for him. Security was a little bit slower coming in. From the voices, both the guards outside were dead.
Envyss looked up when the medic removed the pressure pad. "Ross, get some clothes on."
"Are you all right?"
"I will be. It's a slice, not a stab."
Ross pulled trousers on and slipped on shoes, then came back out to help.
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