Free April 3: The Middle of Nowhere by Mackey Chandler

assassin a day at me I won't hold out very long anyway. It costs a lot to send one up here. Surely we have until at least the next shuttle before we have to worry about another."
    "Perhaps. I am a professional paranoid. I'd don't want to make any assumptions if an error means you are dead. I read last night that they have a solution to long term Bucky Ball toxicity and new life extension treatments might take us out to about three hundred years. It would be a shame to see that cut off for you at sixteen." Gunny suggested.
    "Look at the curve for life extension," April said cutting a climbing graph in the air with her hand. "If we'll have three hundred now the curve is really turning up sharply," she said running her hand almost straight up. "I can't imagine another thousand and more won't be added on during that new period. Pretty soon homicide and suicide will be the only serious sources of morbidity. Beside the people who die young from stupidity before they have a chance to get any sense. Males especially," she said trying to tweak him a bit. He didn't bite. He agreed actually.
    "I don't think you'll ever completely get rid of people who thrill seek like sky divers and folks who race cars. But I bet most will shun risk taking. Maybe even pay for delivery of groceries and stuff in order to hole up at home to avoid the risk of travel and exposure to disease."
    "True," April agreed, "but trauma medicine is getting better and better too. You may have to really splatter yourself beyond scraping up or burn yourself up to be permanently dead."
    "And yet they still can't freeze a large mammal and have it thaw completely normal and live a full life after. If your buddy Jeff really does make a starship, somebody better perfect that or it will be a mighty long boring trip to those stars if you need spend it awake."
    "That's a problem. I assume there is probably somebody working on it who is a wizard at the biological sciences, just like Jeff is working at nano." April looked up sharply. "In fact I know just the person to commission," she said suddenly happy.
    Gunny had jerked and scanned the room quickly when she looked up so abruptly. April examined his breakfast and he hadn't eaten much at all.
    "Gunny, do you need a couple days off? I'm afraid yesterday imprinted you and you can't relax. Maybe there is some Post Traumatic Stress you need to deal with? There's medicine that eases that isn't there?"
    "You should be the one stressed. Nobody was shooting at me. "
    "I am a little. I had weird, mixed up dreams last night and got up in the middle of the night and walked around and made myself some hot chocolate. I'll go by the clinic after breakfast and talk to the doc on duty about it."
    "I'll listen to whatever he tells you, but I'm not going to take anything that slows me down or will numb my valid judgment."
    "Okay, but eat please. You can't stay fast and alert without fuel either," she pointed out.
    Gunny considered his omelet. "I've let this get cold. I'll get it heated and some fresh hot cakes. Maybe you are right. We'll both talk to the doc."
    When he came back Margaret was with him.
    "Thank you so much for your protection last night," April said. She went around the table and hugged her after she put her tray down. Margaret hugged her back and didn't hurry to end it.
    "That's why I was here," Margaret explained. "Alvin tagged that guy when he got off the shuttle as bad news and we had a watch on him every time he moved. Jon had me pre-positioned in the cafeteria as soon as he left his room and headed this way."
    "You knew he was after April?" Gunny asked, frowning.
    "No, we just figured he was up to no good. He could have been after somebody else, or been a saboteur. He was just too young and in too good a shape to be a pharmaceuticals salesman. If we knew he was targeting April, or anybody else, we'd have never let it progress so far."
    "Good, I wouldn't approve of using her for bait," he said bluntly.
    "I will never do that.