Wills almost missed her hand as his mind franticly tried to deal with something that was just--wrong, “Ahh . . . Katrin?”
Her smile shifted to a stern expression, “Did you like my Kamp Komandant, Admir-r-al?”
It was several minutes before he regained a dignified composure. The others had arrived before him and already knew who she was, but his collapse started their laughter all over again.
When he could talk again and had finished wiping the tears from his face, he looked at Katrin, “Why did you do that to us? It must have required a tremendous effort to maintain that facade, and you must have known that everyone on the planet was speculating on how to arrange an accident for you.”
She inclined her head and smiled, “I kept your mind off of other things. Besides, it was great fun watching people twitch and duck down other corridors in the ship or behind buildings in the towns when they saw me coming.”
The extent of their psychological plot opened in Wills’ mind. He had always wondered how she could have a practice when she was probably more fearsome than a patient’s own internal demons.
Secretary Algon and two of his aides stepped forward to the top of the stairway in a conspicuous manner.
Wills caught the motion and led the group to join him, “Mister Secretary, I am honored to be here today and very grateful that you arranged this reunion.”
Secretary Algon was a muscular former athlete from South Africa, very tall with startling green eyes, and dark skin. Shaking hands with him was a memorable experience. His voice was deep and smooth; a perfect match for his size.
“Admiral, I regret that it was not possible for many of you to be here in time for the official dedication, but I was determined to meet the main players in one of the biggest events in human history. After all,” he swept his hand toward the center of the crater, “this is the direct result of your adventure. It was your report and Admiral Copeland’s speculation that has brought us to the end of this path and to the start of a new one.”
With the focus now adeptly moved to the path that stretched before them to the crater’s center, they descended the one hundred wide steps to the sloping walkway that led to the newly constructed memorial.
Wills had been told about the acoustic oddity within the crater; experiencing it caused a varying sense of peace and apprehension. It was like walking into a world far distant from the one only two hundred meters away. Only the slight sound of their footsteps intruded as the scarred and dented spherical hull of the Harrison-Lake Isolator loomed above them and filled their minds with what had happened here.
CeCe’s long held idea that this initial experiment had not resulted in the destruction of the Harrison-Lake Isolator gained a great deal of traction after the incident with Forest. It was determined that the linear momentum of the Isolator once the field had closed--after an unsuccessful attempt to take the Earth with it--pointed it near the constellation of Pisces on the eastern horizon. An intense manual search was mounted along the theoretical line of flight out to the edge of the solar system. It took almost two years and a fleet of AI controlled drones to locate the Isolator bumping along in the Oort Cloud. It now stood on the rebuilt support structure at the center of the crater it had created.
They all walked around the column below the sphere reading some of the hundreds of names that were deeply etched into the steel; these were the people that had died that night and represented the real cost of the future. A large piece of stone that had been part of the main building’s foundation rested on the ground on the south side of the Isolator where it would always catch the warmth of the sun.
On it were these words:
May the universe grant us peace
and rest our souls beneath the warm Earth
It had been written by the engineer, Arnold Bellman, as he froze to death somewhere that must have seemed beyond even the reach of God. He, Richard Lake, and Elizabeth Wooley now rested beneath that stone in the warm Earth.
Wills looked at the faces around him; there were some tears.
He placed a hand on the stone; it was warm in the afternoon sunlight, “I have to admit that this place has an effect on me. It has the quiet and peace of a church; it makes me feel . . . small.”
He looked down at the face of the stone and the words on it, “One thing that has always astonished me about the history of humanity is that there has always been that special group of people that step up and do the thing that needs to be done even when they know there is a possibility that . . . well . . . you know.
“Here lies three that did that thing that needed doing, and I stand in awe of them. But, I also know that I, and all of you, are members of that group. All of you joined me in something unusual and you knew it would be difficult. Many had the opportunity to join me; few did. It needed doing and you came close to really paying for your willingness to do it.”
Wills maintained his grip on the stone but lifted his free arm to encompass his people, “Come forward, and place a hand on this stone that marks this place of sacrifice. Always know that you are they, and they are you.”
#
Wills was the last to reach the top of the staircase. He stopped next to Secretary Algon who turned to look at him.
“Admiral, I want to thank you for your words. You should have been the one speaking at the dedication instead of
