Read The Great Symmetry for Free Online

bridge.” Lobeck again led the way. They proceeded to the anteroom, where the door shut and locked behind them before identification was scanned, and the way to the bridge opened. The party, of Lobeck, Roe, and two orderlies, stepped out onto the bridge.
    “Report,” ordered Captain Roe.
    “Proceeding to Top Station, sir,” Commander Varma told him. “We’re just finishing the upgrade to Status Three as ordered.”
    “Mister Lobeck will be in suite one zero two. Post two men at all times to assure that he is not disturbed.”
    “Make a general announcement directly to your crew, if you would be so kind.” Lobeck placed a perfect hand on the edge of the console in a model’s simulation of leisure.
    Roe opened the channel. “Attention all crew. Please extend Vice President Arn Lobeck all courtesy due his position, and carry out any instructions provided by him. Roe out.”
    “Good. My first order is that no person shall leave this ship without my permission. All shore leave at Top Station is cancelled.”
    There was no open complaint at Lobeck’s pronouncement.
    “My second order is that my staff and I shall have access to all parts of the ship at all times. My third order is that the forward gymnasium will be cleared for my use, a quarter-hour from now. Please expedite these, Mister Roe.”
    Captain Roe was feeling ill. “Yes, sir.”
    Lobeck turned to Varma. “Commander, what is our ETA at Top Station?”
    “Five hours and twelve minutes, sir.”
    “We have the captured runabout in tow?”
    “It’s in the hold, what’s left of it, sir,” Varma said.
    “Hold at a distance of five kilometers from Top Station. At that time, I will require forensic and engineering experts to assist me in examining the boat.”
    “I led the engineering investigation,” Varma objected. “We did a thorough job.”
    “Post a copy of your results for access from my account, then. They could be of some use. Mister Roe, why don’t you show me to my suite now?”
    Another little test, but one that Roe had prepared for. Lobeck would know that the only resident suite on the cruiser was that belonging to the Captain. Roe had emptied his quarters before Lobeck had arrived on board. “Right this way, sir.”
    Fly In Amber
    Evan could feel his forehead against the hard surface. It definitely wasn’t a pillow.
    For a moment he kept his eyes closed, not wanting to face what he knew would be there. There was no avoiding the other senses. Confinement. The suit wrapped his arms and legs, not tight, but unmistakably there, and all encompassing.
    Silence, except his breathing, and the low whisper of the air system.
    Smell, of someone who has been in an EVA suit for too long, and of fear.
    Taste, of drool thickened on his tongue while he had been asleep. He scraped some of it onto his top row of teeth, then took a sip from the straw and swirled the water around in his mouth. He wished he could spit the resulting mixture out, but that wasn’t an option. He had to swallow the viscous fluid.
    “Suit,” he said. “Where are we?”
    “We will enter the orbit of Foray in another two hours and twelve minutes. We will then assume a slightly eccentric but stable orbit around Foray.”
    “How much air?”
    “Depending on your level of activity, approximately eight hours,” the voice told him. “You gained slightly over a half hour of duration by sleeping for the past two hours.”
    It was time to face reality.
    Finally, Evan opened his eyes.
    When he had nodded off, the unchanging star field had defined the view. Now, Foray ruled. Sharp brightness, unmuted by any air. The moon reflected back the intensity of Kelter’s white sun.
    Foray occluded a full thirty degrees of arc in the lower right part of his field of view. Against a backdrop of stars and black space, it was a scene of breathtaking beauty. His entry to orbit had taken Evan between Kelter and Foray, so Foray’s visible surface looked very much like the moon he had seen on many