Station Breaker

82 Fallback

I look at the lights down in the night side and imagine each one is a living person. Maybe they are.

"David…" cries Laney, tired of the silence, "if only the DarkStar hadn't been destroyed."

"Yeah… is it?"

"You said all the ships were destroyed in the explosion?"

"I meant the Russian ones."

"Wait… Hold on… checking telemetry. Yeah, it's still there."

"Well, that's a relief. Too bad it's about a kilometer away now."

"I can control it remotely."

"Wait? What?"

"Yeah, dumb ass. If you tethered it, I'll use the control rockets to burn through the line. Hold on. We're logging in now. Got it."

"Shit? Are you saying I'm not going to die?"

"Not from lack of oxygen. But you'll still have to do the high altitude reentry on the inflatable heat shield. Nobody has ever tried that before."

To hell with the martyr bullshit. I want to live. Or at least die trying to.

"I think I can deal with those odds."

So this will be interesting…