Pegasus In Space

EPILOGUE:

The bottles of champagne, carefully imported from Earth, were chilling in buckets full of Callisto's ice: undrinkable, of course, but capable of cooling wine.

The same cast of characters with a few important additions, Peter thought, glancing around those standing and sitting in the control Tower of the Federated Telepath and Teleport installation on Tithonus, now a satellite of Jupiter's tenth moon, Callisto. He was even getting accustomed to the great mottled orange Jovian bulk that was seldom missing from the thick wraparound windows.

Callisto Tower, as the Tithonus installation was called, was ready for this historic moment. Admiral Dirk Coetzer, silver-haired and bursting with pride, was seated at one console. He was to have the honor of issuing the command to the Tower team to begin the ISS Bradbury's historic teleportation to its destination, Capella.

For this great endeavor, Lance was tuning the great Tower's Gadriel generators, buried deep in the core of Tithonus. Peter could hear them singing in his favorite key, C major.

On one screen, former Commander Dash Sakai had the massive bulk of the Bradbury at her mooring off Padrugoi. On the other, he was getting the highest possible resolution on the visual of the M-5 planet in the Capella system. Madlyn, his wife of many years, sat beside him, beaming proudly at him.

Among the spectators specially invited for this occasion were Rhyssa and Dave Lehardt, though their teenage sons, Eoin and Chester, were beginning to fidget. Also present were Sascha and Tirla Roznine, Shandin Ross, the Admiral's longtime aide and telepath, and Nicola Nizukami, now a chief petty officer. To one side was Amariyah Bantam, chief hydroponics engineer and emergency medic, with an imperious tilt to her determined chin, at the fore of the rest of the Tower staff. More than half of the forty men and women had some psychic ability-Talent, Peter liked to call it, with a capital T! Only Dorotea Horvath and Professor Gadriel were missing from those whom Peter had assembled for this occasion. Peter smiled in sad remembrance of how proud Dorotea had been when he had placed Tithonus perfectly at its Lagrange point above Callisto.

"And now you have the right place to stand, don't you, Peter?" Dorotea had murmured for his ears alone.

Peter shook himself loose from the memories, and concentrated on the task to hand. Johnny Greene, in the informal AirForce blue coverall he preferred, occupied one of the three conformable couches. Sally, his wife, stood proudly beside him. On the second couch was Scott Gates, looking just a trifle nervous about his part in the imminent ceremony. Peter would occupy the third and now his wife, Ceara, smilingly beckoned for him to take his place.

The comunit bleeped.

"Callisto Tower, this is Captain Gale Johnson of the colony ship Bradbury, all systems are green for lift." The captain used the new term Peter had selected to replace "teleportation," a lengthy and somewhat daunting word.

"Very good, Captain Johnson," Admiral Coetzer said, nodding significantly to Peter who stretched out on the third couch. "Are you ready, Tower Prime?"

Peter took a deep breath, looked over at Johnny's wicked expression and Scott's rather apprehensive one.

"We are indeed, Admiral," he said, closing his eyes and "feeling" for the support of the other two minds. "Initiating the merge." He reached out for Johnny's mind, suddenly as professionally alert as Scott Gates's. "Admiral Coetzer, do the honors!"

"Bradbury, this is Callisto Tower, initiating lift."

The generators peaked, keening under the strain as Peter Reidinger, John Greene, and Scott Gates hurled the million-tonne ship out to the stars. Everyone inhaled sharply as the Bradbury disappeared from the Padrugoi screen.

"Well," Admiral Coetzer said with a tight smile. "That's that."

Johnny Greene looked sharply at him but it was Peter who spoke. "Admiral, I think we need to talk about our contract."

Dirk laughed. "It seems we're always talking contracts!" But he shook his head, pointing to the monitor showing where the Bradbury had been. "You've proven that you can send the Bradbury somewhere-but it'll be another forty years before even that pet SPOT of yours will see the light of that starship shining back from Capella."

Peter's eyes gleamed. "So you're saying, Admiral, that until we can prove that we have lifted the Bradbury the forty-five light years to Capella, we will have a hard time revising your contract with FT amp;T?"

Dirk Coetzer nodded. "I'm afraid so. I know you can do it but others are going to want to see proof."

"I told you so," Johnny muttered to himself smugly.

"Well, how about we step over here," Peter said, motioning the admiral toward Dash's monitors, "so we can discuss proof more objectively."

Dirk sighed. "Peter, I don't think there's much more to-" His eyes latched onto the telescope's image of Capella's M-5 planet. "What's that?" the admiral pointed to the glittering speck now visible.

"That's the Bradbury orbiting Capella," Dash Sakai said, somehow managing to keep his voice steady as if he were reporting no more than a normal arrival.

Dirk's jaw dropped and he turned first to Johnny, then to Peter, raising a finger accusingly. "You knew! You lifted it back in time. Why didn't you tell me? Do you know what that means? Do you know how this will speed up our explorations? How did you do it?"

It was Peter who answered him. "In order, yes, we did know-or at least we were pretty sure. We didn't tell you because we only had the one lift to Mars to go by and there was enough time between our lift and their getting those critical replacement units that it could have been a normal space translation. We know that without this sort of timely transportation and communication, all the colony worlds will be doomed to lag technically behind Earth-because it will take at least as many years as they are light-years distant for news and inventions to travel to them.

"And how did we do it?" Peter finished with a smile, "We do it naturally."

Dirk quirked his eyebrows at this confident and oh, so powerful, young man.

"Remember," Peter said softly, "we have to 'see' what we're lifting-at both ends. Then we 'tune' ourselves to do the job."

"Peter-no, Mr. Reidinger," Dirk's face burst into a huge grin and he grabbed Peter's hand, pumping it fiercely, "you'll get that new contract. Hell, you'll get 'em all." He dropped Peter's hand, shook his head in awe, and thrust his big fist upward in triumph. "Yes! The stars are ours!"

Peter felt his heart about to burst; Ceara's reassuring hand gripped his shoulder, her empathic bond telling her how deeply he was moved by this moment.

He had so wanted to be a part of Earth's Space Program. Now he was the Space Program.

Softly to himself he said: "Or what's a heaven for?"