Heaven's Fall by David S. Goyer, Michael Cassutt Read Free Book Online Page B

reprogramming. Persistence could even result in recycling.”
    Carbon-143 returned to her place inside the facility. She was aware of unwanted data—images and sudden surges in her electrosomatic web—that made her momentarily inefficient at her task. It took, in fact, almost twenty seconds for her to return to optimum efficiency.
    She reran the context, analysis, narrative, conclusion, and especially action. The same electrosomatic spike occurred again.
    Her human counterparts would have called it “frustration.”

It isn’t the flight that kills or even stresses an astronaut. What really gets you is the bullshit they put you through after landing.
ANONYMOUS ASTRONAUT, 2011

RACHEL
    Once the initial greetings and introductions were complete, Rachel stood back and let Taj and the rescue team prepare to take Adventure ’s crew to Yelahanka’s infirmary.
    “I would like the Sentry and Mr. Toutant inside the rescue truck,” Taj said.
    “Okay,” Rachel said. She was still a bit dazed by the landing and the sight of Taj and Tea— Tea! The pretty, smart, almost socially hopeless woman her father had turned to in his widowerhood . . . to find her here, married to Taj!
    It was one too many shocks.
    In their limited contacts, Rachel had made it clear to ISRO that she would defer to them on where the returnees would be taken, and how, and in what order. But little else.
    “We would rather not advertise the presence of an alien,” Taj added, unnecessarily.
    Now that the euphoria of arrival had passed, the other Adventure travelers seemed to be as numb as Rachel. Only Yahvi seemed to have any life to her, as she kept looking at the sky and at what must have been, for her, magical distances.
    “Feeling okay?” Rachel said, taking her daughter’s hand.
    “Weird, but okay.”
    Zeds and Toutant climbed into the rescue truck. Even though it had twice the height of the ambulance and Jeep, it seemed to be a bit of a squeeze for the Sentry. Wing Commander Kaushal rode with them.
    Rachel, Pav, and Yahvi boarded the Jeep with Tea and found themselves waiting for Taj.
    Before the convoy could leave the landing site, there had been a scramble of luggage and equipment. The Adventure travelers each had a small bag—toiletries and a change of clothes. (Yahvi had insisted on bringing Sanjay’s bag down from the cabin.) “What is the problem?” Pav said.
    Rachel knew why. “Soyuz landing,” she told her husband. He made a face, but his father nodded. “When I returned from ISS in June 2014, landing in Kazakhstan, many personal items went missing.”
    It was pleasing to Rachel to know that even with the quasi-emergency nature of the landing, Taj would not allow Adventure to be ransacked. Before departing the landing site, he insisted that they seal the hatch. Of course, as with any customs shipment, those seals could be broken by eager parties undaunted by legalities.
    So Taj had encouraged Pav and Toutant to actually lock the hatch.
    “Do you trust these guards?” Pav asked his father, as the Jeep finally started rolling away.
    “They aren’t the usual sort,” Taj said. “We did a special screening.”
    Rachel wondered what that might involve, and how any of that would stop someone from being bribed.
    No matter; she could do nothing but trust Taj and ISRO.

    As they drove through the empty streets of Yelahanka village, she noticed Taj repeatedly glancing over at his son—now a grown man in his thirties.
    “Why don’t you ask him?” Rachel said.
    “Ask what?” Taj said, surprised by the question.
    “All of the things you want to ask him.”
    Taj smiled, a rare event from what Rachel recalled. She knew he must have a thousand things he wanted to know. Surely he wanted to embrace his son, his son’s new wife, and his granddaughter.
    But the streets were narrow and the task of getting to safety had priority. So Taj had to settle for brief eye contact and nervous smiles. Rachel sympathized, even as she and Pav and