Read The Island of Hope for Free Online Page B

here. Nothing of the kind: they'd struck a blow and cleared out through a wormhole saving their skins; they didn't send any spaceships here, as they were afraid of ruining their reputation.
    "Dad... How could you do such a thing? How can you now breathe, live, look in mom's eyes? You remember saying to me: 'Son, it's time for you to become a man.' I did become one — what about you? You exposed me, wrote me off as a percentage of losses, while you yourself are alive. What for? How can you defend yourself now, and how will you do so once I return?"
    There was only one thing Andrei wanted at the moment: to return and find out that the orbital station had evaporated in the flame of total nuclear decay without any fragment left or, at least, that his father had done what he ought to have done, going on to glory after the pointless Pyrrhic victory.
     
    * * *
     
    Andrei didn't know that none of that was destined to come true.
    Having fulfilled its task, the running robot busily radioed that the right jet had been located , but, along its trajectory through the spheroidal agglomeration of wrecks, in the dark interior of battle decks several infrared floodlights had already lit up, and some battle machines followed the spider-like robot.
    After fifty minutes by the local system timer, a group of machines of the Earth Alliance pursuing the running robot got onto the battle deck of the colonists' cruiser where dozens of weapons at the service of the Free Colonies waited for their hour to come, in a deceptive numbness.
    Dante had no idea that it was the oncoming of Inferno.
     
    * * *
     
    Never in his life had Nomad felt his vulnerability so keenly. The jets of his spaceship had been dismounted, and for the first time in many years it was unable to start up directly after an order given by its master.
    Hugo's comments on the fact that the ten hours necessary for the delivery and mounting of the new propulsion systems were not a serious delay didn't reassure Nomad much. He was afraid of this place and didn't even try to hide his fear. All around them had become impregnated with suffering and death. Thousands of corpses were floating in the dark corridors and compartments of disabled spacecraft.
    Nomad rose from the control panel, casting an angry glance at the straight row of monitors. Everything was prepared for receiving the propulsion system, it only remained to wait, and that was the most painful. Three hours ago Hugo, attended by a group of robots, had disappeared into the bowels of the spheroid.
    Annoyed, he lit a cigarette and went out into the central saloon.
    Andrei was in an agony of suspense, sitting by the transparent shell of a reanimation chamber that Hugo had arranged for the two-year-old baby. The boy was sleeping with his arms stretched out in a funny way, and his snuffle made the plain and functional space of the compartment more cozy.
    Nomad stood still in the doorway. Andrei's hunched figure was sharply dissonant to the kid's placid features, as if there were an invisible partition between them.
    He sighed and went to the bar.
    "Want a drink?"
    Hearing no answer, he filled two glasses and offered one to Andrei.
    He took it, indifferently looking down.
    "What are you thinking about, soldier?" Nomad asked, trying to dispel the oppressive silence; at the same moment, he regretted his having been ironic. Such a furious madness flared in the young guy's eyes that a cold shiver ran down his spine.
    "None of us will survive," Andrei managed.
    He was eager to live, but he knew better than anyone that the flame of war had spread over the sliver of space explored by men. Neither he nor anybody else could stop the frenzied dance of death. The avalanche of galactic war would sweep away mankind, sparing only a few men like himself, aged prematurely, seared by battles and perceiving too late the crux of the matter.
    "I've never wanted to live so badly," he breathed out.
    Nomad was going to object, but stopped short. He realized