Killshot: A First Contact Technothriller (Earth's Last Gambit Book 4)
Page 38
Jack wondered if Giles would recover fast. In some senses he’d suffered more than any of them. He said, “You and your parents should stay for a while. They’re getting on famously with mine. Mum is delighted to have a chance to use her French.”
“Who wants champagne?” Giles said. “It’s the real thing.”
Jack held out his glass. So did Skyler. So did Hannah. Jack saw Skyler shoot a quick glance at her. “It’s OK,” she said. “I’m going to have one glass. Because it tastes good.”
Keelraiser came out of the church, sliding his sunglasses over his eyes. “They’re almost ready,” he said.
“OK,” Jack said, but he was enjoying the evening and the champagne and the conversation. “So what’s the plan, Skyler? Are you going to stay in Lightbringer City?”
“For now.”
“He’s been offered a job,” Hannah said. “Running the United States.”
“Riding a desk,” Skyler said.
“President Flaherty escaped the tsunami,” Hannah explained. “The Chinooks disobeyed orders to go and pluck him out of danger. That’s how much folks love him. Linda got out, too. They’re in Colorado now, but they’re going to be moving the government back East. So he wants Skyler to go and work for him.”
“I really want to get back to astrophysics,” Skyler said.
“What about your patriotic duty?” Hannah teased.
“If Kuldeep can quit the NXC to work on connectivity in Africa, I can quit the NXC to hang out with you and write songs,” Skyler said.
Jack smiled wistfully as Hannah mock-punched Skyler, rriksti style. Both of them were bruised inside and out. He hoped they’d be OK.
“Well, what about you?” Hannah turned a challenging, searching gaze on Jack.
“Not sure yet,” he parried.
“What about you, Iristigut?”
“I don’t know yet,” Keelraiser said. “I may spend some time exploring Earth. There must be some regions that are actually habitable. Anyway, someone needs to stick around to stop you from blowing the place up.”
Hannah laughed. “You know, Iristigut, I still have my issues with you, but you’re a mensch. That’s a compliment,” she added. “From one Shiplord to another.”
Jack said jokingly, “On the other hand, there may not be room for two Shiplords on Earth. We’ve also talked about going back to Imf.” He held his breath. He and Keelraiser had gone round and round in circles about this. It had got to the point where Jack himself didn’t know if he wanted to go or stay.
Giles said, “Count me in.”
Keelraiser said, “We should go inside. They’re ready.”
Skyler had already slipped away. As they piled into the church, Jack saw him sitting up front, tuning an acoustic guitar. Beside him sat Stepstone, the rriksti instrumentalist, and a gaggle of locals with instruments ranging from a clarinet to a harp. The organ was broken, but there would still be music.
The impromptu band struck up the Wedding March. Solfiya stalked gracefully up the aisle, a striking figure in the white UV poncho that brushed her heels. She couldn’t hear any of it except for Stepstone’s part, yet her steps kept pefect time. Hriklif waited at the front of the church. Father Cullen commenced the marriage ceremony.
Jack missed the first part, as he was tinkering with the laptop and video camera Keelraiser had set up on a chair in the corner. “Can you see?” he typed.
Far away on the moon, Alexei typed, “Can see now. Wow. Beautiful.”
It was beautiful. The altar candles flickered, and even the small children sat rapt. It struck Jack that this was a fitting way for the Imfi conquest to end: two aliens getting married in an English country church.
On the moon, Nene squeezed into the frame beside Alexei. Lips parted, she marvelled at the ceremony, and then typed, “Please ask this priest if he will come to the moon.”
“He’s a bit old to travel,” Jack typed. “But now that the first arcology’s habitable, I know you’re being deluged with applications. Just put out a call for priests and religious.”
“Way ahead of you,” Alexei typed. “Building church in arcology. Getting icons sent from Moscow—”
The screen momentarily went black as a tiny hand covered the camera. Alexei pulled a baby away from the screen. Even with the sound off, Jack could tell the baby was giggling.
He looked around for Keelraiser, thinking he’d like to see the kids.
Keelraiser wasn’t anywhere.
Fear struck him. “Be right back,” he typed to Alexei, who nodded, baby-wrangling while Nene took notes on the ceremony.
Jack nipped around the ends of the pews and out into the evening. It was dusk now. Rriksti time. The sky was violet. The smell of sun-warmed asphalt tinctured the air.
“… and so what you’ve got to understand is that salvation isn’t earned. It’s a free gift from God, who came to live among us here on Earth two thousand years ago. I know it sounds incredible, but that’s what happened. And it’s plain that He also came for you.”
Jack recognized his own father’s voice.
“I believe it,” said another beloved voice—both in his head, and acoustically, in the crackly tones of a field radio.
“Exactly! It’s the only way to look at it in my view, Keelraiser. All this had to happen, so that the rriksti people could be saved, too. He’s been searching for you, calling your names across the void. But you had to come here to find Him.”
Jack spotted the two figures at the end of the graveyard, the one stoop-shouldered and gray-haired, the other tall and thin, but also stooped, intently listening.
Jack tiptoed between the gravestones, nettles brushing his jeans.
“What do I have to do?” Keelraiser said. “Now that I’m here, how do I find Him?”
“Well, I think you already have,” John Kildare responded. He gestured at Keelraiser’s chest. “I seem to have seen that before, actually. I gave it to my son five years ago. I hope he didn’t give it to you because he didn’t want it anymore.”
“No,” Keelraiser said. “He gave it to me to eat.”
“Ah.” John Kildare, understandably, seemed to be lost for words. Then he rallied. “Well, that’s actually quite appropriate. This is My Body, this is My Blood. Do this in memory of Me. It looks rather un-eaten, though?”
“I kept it because Jack gave it to me. But I cannot think of anything good enough to give him in return.”
“Talk some sense into him, that’s all I ask,” John Kildare said dryly. Then he caught sight of Jack standing nearby. “Ah, there you are. I’ve just been telling your friend about the Church.”
“We’ve barely scratched the surface,” Keelraiser said to Jack. “I want to hear more. I want to know everything.” He gazed expectantly at John Kildare.
Jack took Keelraiser’s hand and laced his fingers through Keelraiser’s cold ones. He hoped his father wouldn’t blow a fuse, but he and his mother would have to know at some point.
“Well,” Jack’s father said, gazing thoughtfully at their joined hands, “as good a place to start as any is Jesus’s commandment: Love one another. But you seem to have that covered.”
THIS IS THE END OF THE EARTH’S LAST GAMBIT QUARTET.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Felix R. Savage writes hard science fiction, space opera, and comedic science fiction. He has also occasionally been known to commit fantasy.
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DISCOVER THE ADVENTUROUS WORLDS
OF FELIX R. SAVAGE
An exuberant storyteller with a demented imagination, Felix R. Savage specializes in c
reating worlds so exciting, you’ll never want to leave.
EARTH’S LAST GAMBIT
A Quartet of Present-Day Science Fiction Technothrillers
Ripped from the headlines: an alien spaceship is orbiting Europa. Relying only on existing technology, a handful of elite astronauts must confront the threat to Earth’s future, on their own, millions of miles from home.
Can the chosen few overcome technological limitations and their own weaknesses and flaws? Will Earth’s Last Gambit win survival for the human race?
Freefall
Lifeboat
Shiplord
Killshot
THE RELUCTANT ADVENTURES
OF
FLETCHER CONNOLLY
ON THE
INTERSTELLAR RAILROAD
Near-Future Non-Hard Science Fiction
An Irishman in space. Untold hoards of alien technological relics waiting to be discovered. What could possibly go wrong?
Skint Idjit
Intergalactic Bogtrotter
Banjaxed Ceili
Supermassive Blackguard
THE SOL SYSTEM RENEGADES SERIES
Near-Future Hard Science Fiction
A genocidal AI is devouring our solar system. Can a few brave men and women save humanity?
In the year 2288, humanity stands at a crossroads between space colonization and extinction. Packed with excitement, heartbreak, and unforgettable characters, the Sol System Renegades series tells a sweeping tale of struggle and deliverance.
Keep Off The Grass (short origin story)
Crapkiller (prequel novella)
1. The Galapagos Incident
2. The Vesta Conspiracy
3. The Mercury Rebellion
A Very Merry Zero-Gravity Christmas (short story)
4. The Luna Deception
5. The Phobos Maneuver
6. The Mars Shock
7. The Callisto Gambit