Brace for Impact
Jack Carter shook his head. Screeching static broken by eerie whispers filled the crowded room. He could barely concentrate through the noise blasting from the now dusty speakers in Astraeus mission control.
If those whispers were voices coming from the Astraeus, they were what everyone present had dreamed of hearing for years. But they'd been here before, certain that their loved ones were coming home at last, only to be disappointed. Solar flares. Sonic booms. Unannounced missile launches. All had mimicked re-entry by a long lost spaceship into the atmosphere above Eureka.
This indistinct barrage of sound hadn't yet proved itself to be anything different. Jack strained to listen more closely.
Standing next to him, Henry Deacon stared blankly ahead, numbers repeating in his thoughts like a mantra. 1,461 days. 35,064 hours. 2,103,840 minutes and counting. It had been 4 years since the Astraeus vanished without a trace from its launch pad. Four years since he'd laid eyes on the person he loved most in the world.
Those gathered around him were right to be cautious. Dash hope often enough, and you might lose it altogether. Henry's hands curled into fists as he tried to stay still.
Jo Lupo stood nearby with her back pressed against a wall. Of all the people in the room, her feelings about the possible return of Astraeus and its crew were the most mixed. As much as anyone, she desperately wanted everyone aboard to return, safe and unharmed. But she'd left Eureka when the Astraeus did. She came back sooner than planned, without the answers she'd left to find.
True, she'd learned a number of things over the years. She loved the community she'd found in Eureka. She didn't have to prove that she was tougher or smarter than anyone. And she could let someone share her life without losing herself. Yet she hadn't gotten the answer she needed most: whether she could have been happy sharing her life with Zane Donovan, who'd been aboard the Astraeus and now might be coming back with it.
Once upon a time they'd been in love, then she'd gone a different direction. Once in another time, she'd been lost in herself when he was lost to space. Four years was a long time. A lot had changed.
She lowered her eyes, her gaze captured by the sparkle of a diamond on her left hand.
A shout broke through the static.
"Pull up! PULL UP!"
Jack shot to his feet as if hit by lightning. The voice belonged to Allison Blake. He'd heard it in his dreams every night since he'd seen Astraeus disappear before his eyes, taking her along as an unscheduled passenger.
"We need navigation now!"
Henry dropped to a chair. In all the years of waiting for her return, he hadn't allowed himself to imagine Grace, his wife, doing anything but standing before him with a smile. The long list of less desirable outcomes to the loss of Astraeus had been pushed firmly aside. This scenario, in which he might hear her voice speaking her last words, was one of the worst. Yet for all his genius, all his skills, there was nothing he could do but listen.
"Landing gear!"
This voice was louder than the others and it pinned Jo to the wall. Zane. Alive and apparently in control of whatever the hell was going on up there. She had to make a conscious effort to breathe.
It had been four years since she'd kissed him then walked away without a backward glance. She'd changed—had he? The last thought echoed through her brain. It didn't matter. None of it mattered. Not the four lost years, not the changes they'd wrought. She finally had the last answer she'd been looking for.
Her eyes focused again on the ring adorning her left hand. A ring which had previously belonged to Zane's grandmother but now, unquestionably, belonged to Jo.
An impact strong enough to knock anyone still standing off their feet shook the building as the audio feed went silent.
The Astraeus was home.