Bright Horizons

Chapter 1

 

31 March 2042

It was a few minutes before 1500 when Colonel Kyle Martin strode into the outer office. He was a Marine through and through; ramrod straight back without the effort that it would seem to take and eyes that constantly moved, taking in every detail of a room. He exuded the confidence of a senior officer and the wariness of a man used to danger. He spoke briefly with the secretary and then sat in a chair to wait.

General Davies took a deep breath and prepared himself for this meeting. He had never seen Colonel Martin shaken, not even during the hearings that occurred some six years earlier. If that had gone differently, he would be hard pressed to imagine Martin still in uniform, and that would mean that this meeting, and indeed this mission, would be much different.

The door opened right at 1500 and Martin walked in.

“Have a seat Colonel Martin,” General Davies gestured to the chair in front of his desk. “Coffee?”

“No thank you General,” Martin said as he sat and made himself comfortable.

A quick nod from the General to his secretary was followed by a secure click of the office door closing. Davies lowered himself slowly into the large, well-worn leather chair facing Martin.

“So Kyle, it’s been a few years, hasn’t it?” Davies said as both men settled in.

“Yes sir, I believe it was right after Hyderabad.” A slight wincing was detected in the Colonel’s body language, but his voice remained firm. “I believe you were relieving me of command at the time.”

“Look Kyle, that was six years ago and I didn’t agree with it then. The President was adamant that you be relieved of command. Congress wanted you court-martialed, thrown in a cell and left to rot. It was only the direct intervention of Admiral Rider that you avoided being put before an inquest.” Davies leaned back and took a deep breath. “The Medal of Honor should have been yours, and everyone who knows of the situation thinks so. What you did was absolutely the correct course of action… as the rest of the world will eventually find out. But I didn’t call you here to hash over old times.”

A long awkward pause filled the room with a sharp silence.

“Why did you call me here?” inquired Martin.

Again a long silence. It was useless to try to make him uncomfortable by waiting, though, so Davies just pushed forward.

“Kyle, how familiar are you with NASA?”

“My sister was a flight specialist until the Endeavor was lost. I guess you could say that fifteen years of having an astronaut in the family makes me pretty familiar with the agency.”

“That’s what I thought,” Davies continued “Do you know what happened Kyle? What really happened?”

Martin’s eye twitched and he stiffened as if weighing his response.

“I have made a few inquiries with some friends… and… I know that the official story is part of a cover-up.”

“Yes, yes, I assumed you would have figured that out. Well, time to show you this.” Davies pulled out a folder from his desk drawer and placed it on the desk.

“Sir, that folder is marked SC-07, I don’t have that clearance.”

“You do now Colonel Martin, you need to take that with you and study it.”

“This has to do with Cindy’s death?”

“No, this is your next assignment. I will tell you what happened to your sister. The Shuttle Endeavor did not crash on the moon. The Shuttle Endeavor was destroyed in orbit around Mars.”