Bright Horizons

Chapter 17

5 July 2044

Kyle was napping when the intercom woke him.

“General Martin, are you available for a visitor?” asked the nurse on duty outside of his room.

“Who is it?” Kyle asked groggily.

“A Mister Franklin Smith, he says you will want to see him.”

“Yes, send him in,” said Kyle as he sat up on his bed. Alex, Williams and he were on day four of a five day stay in the anti-radiation ward of the Mayo clinic. None had shown signs of radiation sickness, and their levels were fine when they boarded the Shakespeare, but precautions had to be taken due to the levels of radiation that the Fitzgerald had been exposed to. The radiation levels on the heavily damaged sled were so high that it was left sitting in deep space about half a light year from Helku after the mission.

Kyle was wrapping his robe around himself and walking to the small sitting area in his room when he heard the door open. Smith walked in and closed the door.

“General Martin, so glad to see you again,” Smith said with a smile.

“Good to see you as well, Mister Smith. Please have a seat,” Kyle said motioning to a comfortable easy chair.

Smith crossed the room and sat in the indicated chair as Kyle sprawled out on the love seat under the windows.

“They tell me that neither you, nor Alex Ramirez, nor Carl Williams are in danger from the radiation you encountered,” Smith said. “But they still wouldn’t let me bring flowers in.”

“Flowers?” asked Kyle. “Why would you bring me flowers?”

“From the American media. Bringing flowers to someone in a hospital seems to be a common cultural courtesy, is it not?” Smith’s brows furrowed together.

Kyle smiled cheerfully at the alien. “Yes, sorry, I’m just not used to many people remembering that when it comes to myself being in the hospital.”

“I left them with the first desk I came to. Perhaps you can take them when you leave here.”

“Thank you Mister Smith, I’m sure they are lovely. In fact, I will have my daughter pick them up when she comes to see me this evening,” Kyle replied. “But I am positive that you did not come all the way to Minnesota to bring me flowers.”

“I wish it were that simple, but I have actually come to give you some news which you will appreciate, and some words of caution.”

“Why don’t we start with the news, Mister Smith.”

“Your plan worked at Helku. Mostly. The gravitational weapon was destroyed and the Iltia’cor High Command is in a panic. It seems that their supreme military leader was on board the ship at the time. It also seems that they were filming and transmitting the ambush to show other races who dared opposed them. I don’t think the images that were sent to the other races conveyed the message they were hoping for,” Smith said.

“I would think not. How much was broadcast?”

“All of it, they had some cameras set up about 80,000 kilometers away to catch the whole area of space. It’s a great angle of everything, including the explosion of their ship. I’ll have it sent over. I must admit I wasn’t for sure if the sled got away or not, it was severely damaged when the bombs started going off.”

Kyle nodded. ”We may have underestimated how big of an explosion it would be.”

“I can see where you might want to err on the side of too much rather than too little at that point.”