The WritersWeb A FREE ONLINE/Emailed Ezine promoting quality literature and providing an outlet for aspiring writers. "JUST A LOT OF GOOD READING" WELCOME TO ....... . The WritersWeb (sm) . /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ CONTENTS: #2 /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ 1) ABOUT THE WritersWeb ( WHAT IT IS / WHAT IT IS NOT ) 2) WHAT WE BELIEVE 3) PUBLISHER'S CORNER 4) EDITORIAL 5) TO THE ASPIRING WRITER 6) THIS ISSUE'S FEATURE: PART II of WHEN THE MUSIC STOPS A novel about YOUR future ...by FRED ALLEN /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ PLEASE NOTE: This edition does not include graphics, as on some of our other versions, (SORRY ABOUT THAT...:-) /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ ************************************************************************************** *************************************************************************************** *************************************************************************************** THE WritersWeb WHAT IT IS: This publication is just what it claims to be on the title page a showcase for good quality online books and other types of literature. ( Mainly, just good reading.) Obviously the publisher wants to get his views on as wide a platform as possible so as to expose them to a large audience, but at the same time is very willing and anxious to present any kind of well-written literature in its own light. (see the section to the aspiring writer) WHAT IT IS NOT: While the feature article in its EMailed form does include mention of our sponsors, (some very nice and generous people who support this project), you generally won't find as much of it as on a lot of websites and newsletters. I could grow very old waiting for a homepage to come up on my screen, only to find that it is not what I want or expect. Beautifully done graphics are a joy to behold, and I know it adds to profits, but I look for content, as I'm sure many others do also, and when I want some information, I expect it....RIGHT NOW! The WritersWeb is not exactly anti - copyright, but the material here is free to you. ( Proverbs 23:23 ) read it........ You may print it, copy it, shred it, mail it to your neighbors and friends, put it on a telephone pole, tack it up on your bathroom wall, make clipart/screensavers/shareware out of it, or anything else that you feel like doing with it. Some credit would be nice but it is not really necessary. **************************************************************************************** **************************************************************************************** **************************************************************************************** THE WritersWeb 1) WHAT WE BELIEVE: 2) WHAT WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO BELIEVE: Actually, these are one and the same. Of course, if all of us were totally honest, we would admit that we would like to see a world where everyone believed the same things. If all of us were in absolute, total agreement, then we would have a world with no conflict, right? A world of peace and tranquility.Sounds good, but with people being the way they are, and if you know history, you are also aware that this is what those who built the tower of Babel believed. Some say that this was just a myth....along with all of Biblical history. ( More on this in future issues of The WritersWeb. ) The problem, as we said in the last issue, with any thinking along these lines is that no amount of good works ( no matter what you call them ) will buy you eternal life. That was bought FOR you by the death of God's son. Jesus Christ, the Messiah, paid the debt in our place, and asks us only to trust in that one, very unique payment, and He will GIVE us ETERNAL LIFE! We're not talking about religions here, but about a relationship. Religions all try to "bind" us back to God in one way or another. Some are good, some are not so good in the light of God's Word. All of them are based in some way on man's good works. The Bible says it is not the way to gain or attain Eternal Life. Ephesians 2:8, 9 is very clear on this subject. The "icing on the cake", so to speak, was that Jesus came back from the dead to prove His claims. The resurrection of Christ is the best-documented event in history. ( again, more about these things in future issues. ) It made good sense to me to believe on the one who came back from the dead, and trust Him as the one who paid for MY sin. Why not do the same right now, and accept what He did for you also? You have nothing to lose. Someone recently put it this way when he saw the reality in this; "That's for me.. I don't want to be without a chair when the music stops!" Don't you dare believe it, though, just because I say so. The Bible says that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (That's in Romans 10:17.) Find a Bible, and look for verses like John 3:16, I John 5:13, and John 6:47. Most Bibles have an index, if you need it to find them. If you have any questions, or need help, I'm here. EMail me at netwritr@bellsouth.net *************************************************************************************** *************************************************************************************** *************************************************************************************** PUBLISHER'S CORNER Please take a long, hard, reasonable look at the issues that are presented here. God says, " Come now, and let us reason together..." Read the rest; it's in Isaiah 1:18. As I said in the last issue, we here at The WritersWeb don't have all of the answers. We don't even have all of the questions! We do think we have some answers to the important ones. EMail us! In issues of this 'zine, other departments, or "corners" will be added, being careful not to overwhelm the reader with too much at once. (I have seen that happen all too often. The 'zine hasn't all been read and "digested" when the next one arrives.) Some can handle it. It's a balancing act. COMING ATTRACTIONS: Recommended Reading: - A collection of websites, books, and other reference sources for related information. Biblical Studies of all kinds. (with practical applications) A section for kids. (let's say, pre-teens) One for teenagers For those of college and young career ages. Sections and articles aimed at men/women singles married couples (young & old) Articles titled: "Observations","Bits & Pieces", "Things People Believe". "What happened to Civility?" I think that by now you have the point that The WritersWeb will have a little something for everyone. Some of these departments will be guest-written. I believe that "outsourced" is the current catch-phrase. Look for them. ************************************************************************************** NOTE: We're still painting some of the rooms here at "The WritersWeb", so please be patient and watch your step. As you proceed, you will find a little bit of "Chaos in Motion". ************************************************************************************** ************************************************************************************** An ultimate excuse: "Actual results may vary". ************************************************************************************** EDITORIAL (I said most of this in the first issue of The Writer'sWeb, It is repeated here for emphasis, not for a lack of something to say.) Most of the material in this publication, as you may have already noticed, has a distinctive Christian-orientation and also a conservative flavor. This definitely does not mean that we are anti-everything-else. Everyone is entitled to his or her own viewpoint. Our great nation was founded on this. We respect that. We only ask for the same tolerance to be shown for the ideas and principles presented here. It does provoke controversy. (That's OK too.) Beginning with the next issue, letters to the editor will be printed, ...and answered. EMail us Now, it is true that one can choose to believe just about any thing the mind of man can conceive. One look at the news media will bear that out. The one question that cuts across all of it however, is ....What is your basis for your belief ....for anything? We happen to believe that there is a God, a Creator, who for various reasons, gave us a free will to use to choose to accept the truth as presented to us, or to believe a lie. What it actually all boils down to is, if the Bible is in fact, what it claims to be, then it makes good sense to try to understand just what this book is trying to tell us. If not, then we might as well just "keep on dancing", or "party-on", "stick your head in the sand", or whatever passes for the phraseology of the day among those who have adopted this attitude. The foreword of the current featured book tells it well. ************************************************************************************* THOUGHT: Try to imagine the kind of "heated discussion" Adam and Eve had after they were driven out of the garden of eden..... ************************************************************************************ ************************************************************************************* WE HAVE JUST A LOT OF GOOD READING AT The WritersWeb. WE HAVE NO: chat,clipart,CNN,Dilbert,Disney,ESPN,games,genealogy, jokes,maps,MTV,Netscape,pictures,porn,Real Estate,recipes,screensavers, Shareware,Sports,Stocks,Supermodels,Weather,or Yellow Pages. WE HAVE NONE OF THAT!!!! ************************************************************************************* TO THE ASPIRING WRITER: If you, like me, have "run into the brick wall" of the conventional, historical publishing business, then you can appreciate what I am about to say. Publishing houses today are generally not accepting the unpublished, untested writer. It is just too much of a financial risk. ( Even I can understand that. ) It's far too expensive for them to develop a work from an unknown, new writer. Despite all the ads in the magazines, the odds are overwhelmingly against any kind of success. Agents and all kinds of manuscript "developers" always want their cut up front. ( I TRY to understand that, too. ) Hence, you get all kinds of self-publishing and underground publishing houses, etc. This is adequate, if the writer has the wherewithal, but most don't. If you have a completed, or almost complete manuscript or other work, tell us about it. What we need is a general outline, or synopsis to consider publishing it. That's all. The EMail address is netwritr@bellsouth.net We will look at almost anything, as long as it is not obscene or illegal. ( we will be the judge of that. ) Our list of subjects that we use is taken from that used by the Library of Congress, which we feel is more comprehensive than the older Dewey list, but the subject matter need not be limited to that, nor does it necessarily have to be associated with the subject or content of this ZINE or the featured book. We only ask that , just as our sponsors have asked in the EMailed version, that the material not detract from the general agenda of the publisher. ( we will be the judge there, too. ) Letters to the Editor are for that. ;-) ************************************************************************************ The BIG lie on the Internet: "This may take a minute or two to load." #2 is: "Reading file...Done" ;-) ************************************************************************************ ************************************************************************************ The rule, written or unwritten, is NEVER talk about religion or politics. We' ve broken the first one, the second will be coming soon....... Email us: netwritr@bellsouth.net ************************************************************************************ /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ FEATURE /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ ....................................................... PART II - WHEN THE MUSIC STOPS ...................................................... (...a novel about YOUR future). BY FRED ALLEN PLEASE NOTE: AFTER THIS ISSUE, LOOK FOR THE PREFACE, FOREWORD, AND PROLOGUE, IN The ETEXT Archives at: http://www.etext.org/Zines/ASCII/WritersWeb/ww1.txt (...That way, we can deliver more pages of the book in each issue...) ************************************************************************************** NO WEATHER MAPS HERE... JUST A LOT OF GOOD READING ************************************************************************************** ************************************************************************************* PREFACE If this story ever makes it to the shelves in bookstores, or onto the net\www, or whatever media it lands on, depending on the viewpoint of the person making the decisions, it will most likely occupy a space in the section reserved for the works on science-fiction.(Sci-Fi) That will be just fine with the author, for the main goal will have been met, as long as it is published. That goal is simply to communicate some good news to some who otherwise might never hear it. Some will look at it as pure science-fiction. It is really much much more. It is a fantastic action-adventure tale of unsurpassed violence and destruction. It is better than Star Wars, x-files or even Star Trek. Why? Simply because it will all really happen in the not-so -distant future. (Read on.) At the same time, it is a unique love story. It is based on the one book of true prophecy, the Bible. It is one that is concerned with a terrible time in history. It is a time that is yet to come, from our viewpoint. It is the period in God's own timetable when He takes his vengeance on Satan's world system that God has, for His own various reasons, allowed him to build and sustain for many thousands of years. All true Christians have been removed from the scene, just as God's people were in Noah's day, along with His own Holy Spirit. This was done so that God could initiate His judgements. While it is a tale of extreme violence, it is, as I said, also a love story. Please bear with me as it is disclosed. It is the author's firm belief that around the year 95 A.D., the apostle named John, while he was living in exile on the Greek isle of Patmos, was transported forward around two millenia into this period of time. He has done this with other individuals also. A few of these are Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. John was shown the future. Much as if a native of the jungles of New Guinea would wonder at the marvels of a modern city, or an example that is better still, if he were placed in the vicinity of all the terrors of the recent Gulf war. John was told to record all of what he saw, and had a difficult time doing so. It is no wonder that some have found it a perplexing story, both to read and interpret.... Of course I am speaking of what we know today as the Biblical book called The Revelation of Jesus Christ. The story told here in When The Music Stops begins some time after the events begin in chapter 4, verse 1, and is mainly about one of the individuals who is caught up in a portion of what John recorded. These are.... "...things which must shortly come to pass." ( Revelation 1:1 ) ************************************************************************************** ************************************************************************************** WE DO HAVE A LOT OF GOOD READING HERE: We offer: Adventure,BOOKS,Commentary,Controversy, FREE STUFF, humor,LOVE, An Online Magazine,Music,NEWS,(even before it happens.) Politics,Religion,SEX,(rated PG),Travel, WAR,and Sci-Fi,(better than UFO, X-Files, Star Wars, Star Trek, or NASA. ************************************************************************************** FOREWORD Someday soon, the music will stop. Just look around you. It's not the music. That's only a symptom. One of the multitude of tools or escape mechanisms that people use to deny all of the troubles besieging us constantly. Entertainment of many kinds, alcohol, sex, gambling, drugs, religion, and what they think is the final escape for some, suicide. One writer put it well when he said the world was too bad to be true. I remember a mechanic telling my mother once, what he did. She asked about all the strange noises coming from the jeep that he drove. He said that he just turned the radio up louder. A trip on any highway will bear that out. We ride in our air-conditioned, tightly sealed-up world. Just turn the music up louder. Escape. For awhile, anyway....... ************************************************************************************* "The United States is the only nation that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. -Oscar Wilde ************************************************************************************* ************************************************************************************* VERSES 1-12 of CHAPTER 9 from the Biblical book called The Revelation of Jesus Christ 1. And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven into the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. 2. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. 3. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth; and unto them was given power; as the scorpions of the earth have power. 4. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. 5. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. 6. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. 7. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. 8. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. 9. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. 10. And they had tails like unto scorpions, there were stings in their tails; and their power was to hurt men five months. 11. And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abbadon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon. 12. One woe is past; and behold, there come two woes more hereafter. *************************************************************************************** *************************************************************************************** *************************************************************************************** PROLOGUE "I was really getting worried about you, John. You've been gone so long. I thought something might have happened to you while you were gathering driftwood for the fire along the seashore. You know that we are both growing very old." "There was no real need to worry about me, brother. It was the first day of the week. The day of our Lord's resurrection. I was just sitting on the hillside, meditating." "That was sixty years ago, John. Right now, we need to be thinking about how to survive on this barren rock that you got us sent to. Boats landing here in the harbor are few and they have no real reason for coming. They all know that we are here because we were banished by Domitian. No one would dare take us off, and we have to depend on what we get from the sea to survive." "I know all of that, brother, but I must tell you of what has happened to me. I must also write it all down." "All right, if you must. There is not much else to do around here. Tell me." "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet......" ************************************************************************************ ************************************************************************************ ************************************************************************************ ************************************************************************************ UPDATE: Nick and Charlie, along with three others, are the last crew members remaining on the space station. It has been about three years since they were ordered to unleash their orbiting arsenal of death and destruction to rain on the earth below. The rest of the crew left long ago in one of the supply shuttles to take their chances attempting to return to the surface. They had not been heard from since they left. The five had just been maintaining a lonely existence there, until a chance encounter with some orbiting debris knocked out their primary power supply. After this was repaired, They found that they had a more serious problem. The orbit of the station was decaying, and they were gradually heading for a fiery end when the station gets low enough to re-enter the earth's atmosphere. A meeting was called to discuss their various alternatives......... ************************************************************************************ NOTE: For the beginning chapters of the book, also, go to: http://www.etext.org/Zines/ASCII/WritersWeb/ww1.txt ************************************************************************************ ************************************************************************************ CHAPTER 3 ************************************************************************************ As station chief, Charlie conducted the meeting.. He had been put in charge of the oversight of all operations on the station when he landed there four years ago. He had the rank, the seniority, and the ability to back it up. The rank was somewhat doubtful and academic right now, however. Rank over what? "It looks like we will know something in a few hours whether either of the two remaining shuttles are usable. If they are no good, then Mary has thrown an alternate plan into the pot. It may be a viable option, bit I personally don't buy it." Adams chimed in. "What choice do we have? The only way to go for us is down. If we stay here, we'll be barbequed soon enough." "Not really." replied Charlie. "As I said, there is one really long shot." "What's that?" asked Adams. "The moonbase." They all looked at him as if he had really lost it. "I know. We haven't heard from them in a long time. They may have thought we were lost along with everything else, and just didn't bother to try to contact us. Our signals were probably swallowed up in all the other radiation. If we can get over to the ship, we may be able to make contact with the laser communicator. It may be worth a shot." Immediately after his discharge from the hospital, Charlie had been put in charge of a department whose main job was the procurement of communications equipment for use in space. When Nick was assigned to the station, he saw Charlie's name on the orders, and wondered whose toes he stepped on to get sent there. No pun intended. At the time, he didn't know that he had asked for the post. As he floated down the corridor, he did notice that one star was missing from Charlie's collar. Nick never asked, and no explanation was ever volunteered. 17 ************************************************************************************** ************************************************************************************** ************************************************************************************** ************************************************************************************** The shuttle they were going to use had to be thoroughly inspected and tested. The way Nick and Charlie saw it, if they were to have any kind of a chance, they couldn't leave the way the others did. When they decided to go, and they discovered that the computer disabled the birds, they simply started disconnecting things until they got down to bare-bones minimum. Then they guided it manually into what they saw as a seat-of-the-pants estimate of the right attitude for re-entry, and they fired. No one could tell if they made it or not. They just disappeared into the clouds below. The computer could not track them either. The crew just simply took too much apart. It was agreed that they would go out to work in two-man teams. The suits had to be tested. No one had been outside in years. They had been able to use the robot for what little that needed to be done. Later, as Nick passed the door to Charlie's quarters, he was invited in. He hadn't been there for some time. He had almost forgotten what a museum it was. Charlie had stuck all sorts of souvenirs, awards and pictures on the walls. He could well afford the space. As station chief, his cabin was twice as large as most of the others, having its own private toilet facility and dining area. Nick couldn't figure out how he got permission to bring up all that junk. Smuggling was probably one of Charlies lesser-known talents, he thought. "Nick,I want your honest and frank opinion on something." he began. "Which way do you think those two will jump if they ever get half a chance?" At first, Nick wasn't sure exactly what he was getting at. He thought about a talk they had when Adams and Peters had just come aboard. Even then, Charlie expressed a deep feeling of distrust toward them. Nick was aware that Charlie always had a special kind of sensitivity about things like that. He chalked it up to a leadership requirement. . 18 ********************************************************************************** ********************************************************************************** ************************************************************************************** ************************************************************************************** "Charlie, since it looks like you really want my opinion, I wouldn't trust either of those two as far as I could throw this station, even if I had a place to stand to hold it! You asked for it, and now you got my honest answer!" Charlie showed open surprise at Nick's reply. "All right then, what do we do about it?" "Charlie, I think if we discover that we really don't need those two, I'd be all for pushing them into the airlock and dumping them out like so much garbage, and to top it all off, I think they feel about the same way toward us!" Nick was even surprised at himself by the force of his reply. He almost had forgotten that he was capable of such an outburst. He had been more depressed lately than he had thought possible. He downed the anti-depressants that the Doc. had given him when he heard that Nick was being assigned to the station. Later, he "raided" the drug locker on the station for more. Nick wrote off his condition to the situation on the station, and the lack of proper rest. He also knew he was kidding himself. Charlie had noticed it too. Later, as Nick was resting in his quarters, he reflected on his talk with Charlie, and especially what he had said about the airlock. For some reason his thoughts drifted back to the mysterious and to him, questionable disappearance of the Chaplain. He had not been seen since just before the weapons were launched. Nick had always thought of him as a kind of misfit out here in space. A strange duck, overqualified and really unnecessary here. If anyone wanted religion, there were plenty of programs beamed up from down below. All kinds. In spite of this, Nick would stop by sometimes to see him, mostly out of boredom. No porno, or pictures of supermodels on HIS walls. There was a lot of sports stuff there, and the Chaplain was a good opponent for chess, and they kept a running game going. They were good chat sessions. What surprised Nick most was how much he knew about Judaism and its traditions. 19 ************************************************************************************ ************************************************************************************* ************************************************************************************* ************************************************************************************* Besides the usual theological degrees, he had several earned doctorates in engineering fields. Nick didn't understand this at all, and he asked him about it once during one of their games. The reply was that all of that was before he was born again. Nick asked him what he meant by that. He said, "Nicodemus, art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?" Nick was mystified. He went on to tell Nick that if he was really interested, he had some old tapes that would explain it all. Nick said he would be back for them, but later on in all the confusion of launching the weapons, they were forgotten. No one ever saw much of the Chaplain. He usually only came out of his quarters to eat, mostly while the others slept. Then one day when no one had seen him for awhile, a thorough search was made. No sign of him was found anywhere on the station. Peters suggested that he took a walk through an airlock. It had happened before on several occasions. Maybe, Nick thought. He wasn't so sure that it would have been by his own choice, though. He went down to the Chaplain's cabin to see if he had left some kind of last message. Anything at all... The Chaplain's quarters were in the part of the station that used to be the old Russian Mir space station. After the Soviet Union disintegrated, the Russkys found they couldn't even afford to pay for supply and relief crew rockets. They made a deal with NASA to do it. Nick said it made a good "construction shack", and it was integrated into our station when it was built. The place was a total mess. Stuff was floating around everywhere. All the lockers were open, just as if someone trashed the place while looking for something. Nick spent awhile tidying up the best he could. While he was doing it, he found a bunch of old tapes. He assumed that these were what the Chaplain had spoken about over their chess game. Maybe it was just a bunch of recipes, Nick thought. At least they were not worn out like the rest. They might be useful. 20 ************************************************************************************* ************************************************************************************* ************************************************************************************* ************************************************************************************* Nick bagged them up, along with an old player like the ones he used when he was a kid, skating on the boardwalk at Coney Island. Those were fun days, he thought. Fighting the urge to lapse deep into one of his daydreams, he closed up the cabin and dragged the bag back to his quarters, stowing it for a later time. He put some of his older episodes of Star Trek on the screen that weren't too worn out, and fell asleep. The next day, they all got together in the suit-up room next to the airlock. Charlie read off his list of assignments of personnel for the work periods. The first one would be relatively short. Perers and Nick would go out and check the nearest shuttle. Then he announced a small surprise. Adams would stay in the airlock. He would be suited up, ready to go in case he was needed. The robot would also be nearby, outside. "Why?" Both Adams and Peters asked in chorus. Nick defended the choice. Charlie knew that he would. "Just in case we need help out there. Who else is around that could give us a hand?" Charlie thought Nick's answer sounded pretty good, even though it was a lie, and everyone knew it. Charlie didn't want to be left alone inside with either one of them. Todd probably wouldn't be much help, at least against one of them. Their records showed a lot of combat experience. When the airlock door opened, Nick was hit hard with the same feeling he always got. It gave new meaning to the only words that came to his mind. Breathtaking. Heartstopping. Even Disney couldn't top this. Looking out of a port from inside was in some ways like it, but to actually be in that doorway and stand on the edge of nothing was something else. You had to be there. To top it off, seeing the shuttles hanging out there only added to the feeling. One was lined up with the earth below and a little behind. Here was truly where words fail. 21 ************************************************************************************* ************************************************************************************* ************************************************************************************* ************************************************************************************* Peters nudged Nick, and brought him out of his thoughts and back to the job at hand. Nick looked into Peters' faceplate and knew he was having the same thoughts. He just came out of it sooner. They kicked off and drifted toward the shuttle. Nick figured that if they did it right, they would only have to make a small mid-course correction with their hand thrusters to make it. He was more than right. They drifted right onto the engines, and pulled themselves forward along the hull using a line that was left there by the last maintenance crew that worked on her. Nick looked back toward the massive station, and realized that Charlie was probably right. He had asked Charlie why the shuttles and all the other equipment out there stayed relatively where it was as the station's orbit decayed. The answer Charlie gave now made more sense. He just said, "gravity." The mass of the station gave it a gravitational influence of its own, out here where it was. Sure, some of the stuff was tethered to the station, but a lot of it was not, and it just came along for the ride. The big doors were open. They usually were left that way for keeping the bird cool. As they entered the huge cargo bay, Tagalong was following close behind. One of the technicians had given it that name when it was first used to monitor the workers. Right now, Nick thought it better than calling it, "Charlie Jr.", or some such obvious thing. He thought it best to try to maintain something of an atmosphere of trust, at least doing it on the surface. No one was really sure they had done anything that was blatantly suspicious or harmful yet. Benefit of the doubt, and all that. They got inside, checked all the pressures, and found it all good, even after all this time. They waited in their suits for awhile, just in case. Charlie started Tagalong on the job of doing an inventory of the cargo bay. It was mostly to decide what to keep, and what to dump. 22 ************************************************************************************* ************************************************************************************* ************************************************************************************* ************************************************************************************* "Uh-Oh!" Charlie's comment came over the comlink. Obviously, Tagalong had found something unexpected. "What is it?" Nick asked. "Just go on with your checkout list, but before you leave, look on the port side aft below the blue and white containers." As they checked out the conditions inside, the two were pleased to find that, even after all of the downtime, all of the essential equipment seemed to be in working order. They spent the rest of the day double-checking all the systems. It was a far cry from working on it at the cape with all of its equipment and conveniences, but they felt they did an adequate job of it. One serious problem was found. No fuel. At least, not enough to get them where they wanted to go. Charlie asked Nick if he had paid up his AAA membership. Nick said he didn't think they made service calls this far out. Charlie figured they could transfer enough from the other shuttle, or from one of the tanks in the storage dump. He set Tagalong to working on it. They buttoned up the shuttle when they were done, and Nick went aft to see what Charlie's watchdog had found. It was the Chaplain. At least what was left of him. He was really a mess. Charlie said it was better to just leave him there for now. He would have the robot put him in a canister later. "Decent burial, and all that.", he said. At least part of the mystery was solved, Nick thought. Except for the discovery in the cargo bay, everyone seemed to feel better. They ate and slept better. Nick and Charlie didn't say much about it, but Charlie had Mary set more security in their quarters and the surrounding corridors. After what Nick had seen, it seemed like a very good idea. 23 ************************************************************************************* ************************************************************************************* ************************************************************************************ WE WISH TO THANK ALL THE FOLKS WHO GRACIOUSLY PROVIDE THE SPACE FOR ARCHIVAL OF THIS PUBLICATION. THE ETEXT ARCHIVES (Est. 1992) Home to Electronic Texts of all kinds http://www.intertext.com/ ************************************************************************************ THIS IS THE END OF PART TWO OF THE SERIALIZED VERSION OF OUR STORY. BECAUSE OF SEVERAL CHANGES, ISSUE #3 WILL PROVIDE SPACE FOR MORE PAGES. IF YOU ARE NOT ALREADY RECEIVING YOUR OWN COPY OF THIS FASCINATING STORY, AND WOULD LIKE TO HAVE A FREE COPY OF EACH PART EMailed TO YOU, ALONG WITH THE WritersWeb AS IT IS PUBLISHED, SEND YOUR REQUEST TO: netwritr@bellsouth.net. ************************************************************************************ --------------3D2A287E6170--