Visions of the Future by Joe Haldeman, David Brin, Greg Bear, Kevin J. Anderson, Ben Bova, Hugh Howey, Robert Sawyer, Ray Kurzweil, Martin Rees Read Free Book Online Page A

chemical physics from Harvard and she is also a dancer and musician. Read her Undercity at http://amzn.to/1AypPeJ .
     
    1
    A Flash of Starlight
    Kelric spoke into the empty air of the cockpit. “Glint Control, I’m ready to give it another go.”
    “Standby, Glint One Eight.” Lieutenant Tyrson’s voice came over the audiocom, sounding so clear he could have been right next to Kelric’s reclined seat instead of on the ground far below. “Glint One Eight, tracking and instrumentation are go. You’re cleared for test procedure four. Calculations indicate your wing stress will be within safe limits.”
    Safe? An unwelcome thought rose from a hidden corner of Kelric’s mind. So what? You have nothing worth keeping safe.
    He banished the thought back to its dark recess. Then he whipped his plane through a dizzying set of loops and rolls, uncaring of the g-forces that pressed him into his seat. He lay more than sat in the tight cockpit, with the computer console and display panels in front of him. Data streamed across the visor of his faceplate, changing so fast to keep up with his maneuvers that it blurred. Holomaps of the planet Diesha turned on his screens, the deserts shaded like orange and red paint mixing on a palette. Isolated mountains broke the land’s flatness in convoluted spears, and no clouds showed in a sky so blue it seemed to vibrate.
    Kelric pulled out of his last loop and grinned. “How does that read, Lieutenant?”
    Tyrson chuckled. “Like a dream.”
    And what a dream, Kelric thought. He was the first pilot to test the Glint-18, a rocket fighter powered by nuclear fusion that made other planes he had flown seem like slugs.
    Captain, the Glint’s computer thought. How can a dream read?
    It’s just a figure of speech, Kelric answered, directing the reply with more intensity than when his thoughts were for himself only. He touched the valve in his survival suit where the prong on his pilot’s seat plugged into his spine. It connected the cyberware built into the plane with the network of fibers implanted in his body. The system created a direct link from his brain to the Glint’s onboard systems. His motion was reflexive, a reminder that he was linked to a computer and not a person. He forgot sometimes. The Glint’s efforts to learn idioms made it seem self-conscious, like a human being, someone new to a language.
    Tyron’s voice interrupted his reverie. “Captain Valdoria, I can’t access mod four of your computer.”
    “Checking,” Kelric said. To the Glint, he thought, Run a diagnostic on your fourth mod. It was a vital mod, one that controlled the extra shielding against heat, ultraviolet radiation, and cosmic rays that the craft needed to survive in orbit. Although this wasn’t the first plane Kelric had flown with orbital capability, it far surpassed the others. Today, however, his tests concerned only its performance in a planetary atmosphere.
    Lights suddenly blazed across his controls, glowing like holiday decorations. Altimeter error, the Glint thought. Environment control error.
    Tyrson’s voice snapped out of the audiocom. “Glint One Eight, your chase planes have lost contact with your—”
    As Tyrson’s voice cut off, the Glint added, Audiocom failure.
    Slow down, Kelric told the plane. The rockets fired, but the plane didn’t turn, so it sped up instead.
    Cockpit pressure dropping, the Glint thought. I’ve sealed your survival suit.
    What the hell? Glint, slow us down.
    Neither the thrusters nor the attitude jets are responding, it answered.
    Reboot their control mod.
    Reboot successful, Then: Captain Valdoria, we’re approaching escape velocity.
    Kelric stared at the console. To escape the planet’s gravitational pull, he had to go over eleven kilometers a second, far faster than he had prepared for on this flight. This was nuts. He couldn’t go into space.
    A thought stirred in the recesses of his mind: Why not? You have nothing to lose. Nothing worth keeping.
    The