Read Zero World for Free Online Page A

invisible weighted blanket had been laid over him.
    “I’ve turned about and am under thrust again, Mo. Hope that is expected. What’s this about? Mission aborted, or…?”
    Something had been forgotten, perhaps. Surely it was too late to catch the
Venturi
again before she plummeted into the Sun.
    He cursed the delay in Monique’s response for the hundredth time. All he could do was watch his velocity decrease. Caswell didn’t know much about astrodynamics, but this seemed like a horrendous waste of fuel. More disconcerting was the fact that he’d been locked out of manual control. It implied a lack of trust. That made him squirm in his chair. His trust in Monique, and hers in him, had always been absolute. It had to be.
    Another thought struck him. “Mo, it’s possible this craft has been compromised. I’m locked out, and will soon be headed back toward the Sun.”
    The calm, intelligent lines of Alice Vale’s face came to him, unbidden. Had something more sinister happened to the
Venturi
? Was she still out here, after all this time, and had she now sent him to the same fate as that doomed station? He discarded this idea as sheer paranoia. Certainly the woman could not have survived for so long.Besides, the radar screen showed emptiness all around him. There was literally nothing out here.
    He waited ten long minutes until Monique’s welcome voice filled his ears.
    “Relax, Peter. This is expected. Your course was carefully programmed. I’m sorry to trickle information to you like this, but rest assured it will all make sense soon. Very soon. In fact, keep an eye on your velocity relative to the Sun. When it hits zero, I will finally be able to explain.”
    Caswell settled back into the cushioned seat and waited, eyes never wavering from the tiny readout that marked his speed in relation to the Sun. What the hell did coming to a dead stop have to do with knowing his orders? He pondered this as the number dwindled, the lander’s meager rockets burning through fuel at an alarming rate. Then, the moment the display reached zero, the thrust stopped. Everything went perfectly silent. He was sitting perfectly motionless above the Sun, exactly perpendicular to Earth’s orbital plane.
    “Godspeed, Peter,”
Monique Pendleton said.
    “Meaning what?” he said aloud. Then, “Oh. Shit.”
    Outside the stars began to vanish.

THE STARS DID NOT vanish as if snuffed from existence. It was a gradual fade. Even the blazing Sun visibly dimmed. Baffled, Caswell reached to pull his helmet off, thinking visor malfunction. Only he wore no helmet.
    The flight instruments began to flop about as all navigational markers faded. The craft switched to the crude secondary option—navigating by recognizable stars. This failed, too. Everything outside simply dwindled like the closing scene of a film.
    Fade to black. The end.
    His heart lurched. He would lose his link to Earth. To Monique. “What the hell is going on?” he shouted. “Monique! I’ve…everything…”Of course, shouting was pointless. He was nine light-minutes from any help.
    An icon blipped on the communications screen, a new encoded message. He let the tiny camera above the screen scan his retina and waited, swallowing a growing sense of panic.
    Monique’s face appeared. He’d come to love her face. For security reasons they’d never met in person, and usually her transmissions were audio only, save for their twice-yearly joint assessment. She seemed to stare right at him. Her intense blue eyes gleamed with the reflection of displays. She’d cut her hair since the last time he’d seen her. The fine, dirty-blond strands were tucked behind her ears and falling away past her shoulders. The style accentuated her full lips and smooth, golden skin.
    She smiled her conspiratorial half smile, her eyes slightly downcast as she did so, and then she began to speak in her rich, matter-of-fact way: “The following information is classified, and marked in memory as