Free The Aftermath by Ben Bova Page B

thoroughly and pronounced him physically fit, except for slight dehydration.
    Now they walked him through the ship.
    â€œWhere are we going?” Victor asked at last, as they climbed a carpeted staircase.
    â€œTo meet the man who diverted our ship to pick you up,” said the crewman walking on Victor’s right side.
    â€œThe captain? I’d certainly like to thank him.”
    â€œNot the captain,” replied the woman on his left.
    â€œWho then?”
    They reached the top of the stairs. Another lounge, with fabric-covered walls and muted music purring softly from overhead speakers. Two people were sitting at one of the little round tables; the lounge was otherwise empty except for the human bartender standing behind the bar. The man at the table rose to his feet like the Sun climbing above the horizon: a huge mountain of a man with wild red shaggy hair and beard and a mug of what had to be beer in one ham-sized hand.
    Victor recognized him immediately: George Ambrose, chairman of the ruling council at Ceres. Big George, the rock rats’ leader. A brightly attractive woman was sitting at the table with George. She too looked familiar to Victor but he couldn’t quite place her. She appeared to be young, with bountiful blonde hair framing her pretty, smiling, cheerleader’s face.
    â€œYou’re Victor Zacharias?” Big George asked in a surprisingly sweet tenor voice. He was not smiling, however. If anything, he looked grimly angry.
    Victor extended his hand and Big George engulfed it in his massive paw.
    â€œWe’ve met before,” Victor said, “but it was in a crowd at a party aboard Chrysalis; I don’t suppose you remember me.”
    â€œChrysalis,” George muttered, plunking himself down on his chair; it groaned beneath his weight.
    Victor turned to the woman.
    â€œI’m Edith Elgin,” she said, still smiling as she raised her hand toward him.
    â€œEdie Elgin. The news anchor,” Victor said, recognizing her at last. “But I thought you lived in Selene.”
    â€œI came out here to do a story on the war in the Belt,” she said, her smile fading.
    â€œAnd walked into a fookin’ massacre,” Big George growled.
    A moment of awkward silence. Then George hollered over to the bartender, “We’ve got a thirsty man here!” Turning to Victor he added, “I guess maybe you want a drink, too, eh?”
    Despite himself, Victor grinned. He asked the barman for a glass of red wine. Edith Elgin shook her head when the barman offered to refill her glass of soda.
    â€œI want to thank you for picking me up,” Victor said. “I didn’t think anybody—”
    â€œGot a message from some astronomers Earthside,” George interrupted. “They saw your laser signal. Thought they’d found fookin’ little green men, at first. Big disappointment to them.”
    â€œI’m not disappointed,” Victor said. He picked up his stemmed wine glass and took a long, slow, delicious sip. “You weren’t aboard Chrysalis, ” he asked Big George, “when … when it happened?”
    George swung his red-maned head. “I was here on Elsinore, chattin’ up our visitor.”
    â€œWhat happened to you?” Edith Elgin asked Victor. “How did you get into this mess?”
    Victor began to speak, but the words caught in his throat. “My family … they’re still out there.…”
    â€œWhere?”
    â€œI don’t know!” Victor groaned. “The ship was heading outward.…”
    â€œSyracuse?” she asked.
    For the first time in his adult life Victor had to struggle to hold back tears. He nodded at the two of them and managed to choke out, “He attacked us. For no reason! I separated the pod, drew him away. My wife … two children … they’re out there, drifting outward.”
    Edith Elgin looked up at George Ambrose.