Chapter Ten: The Dark Side of the Moon (Solomon Starbuck)

Time: A year after Apollo's death

Location: Mars

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaangh..."

The astronaut's sigh was long and deep, but it was one of relief. He looked back towards the small blue orb that was Earth. I made it.

The HAT-3 mission, to be the first to put an astronaut on Mars, had been a success so far, although Solomon Starbuck had been less than optimistic about it. Not only because he had yet to get over his astrophobia completely (although the therapy Assistant Director Cosmos had insisted he take had worked somewhat), but also because of the memories it dragged up.

The HAT-1 launch hadn't exactly been a resounding success, to phrase it lightly. Solomon had been forced to resort to some unorthodox measures to survive that trip, and they had lost their chief psychologist to a murderer who had, at the time, been believed to be Simon Blackquill. After all that, he had been a bit apprehensive to return to space, but also anxious to. He wasn't going to let anything stop him. Particularly with the appearance of the two young boys who had shown up on the site.

Clay Terran was always the more adventurous and impetuous of the boys, and he had almost immediately tried to connect to Solomon. At first, he had good-naturedly taken on Clay as his "protegé" just to humor him, but when the boy's passion for space started to really show, he really began to see him as his protegé. When Clay turned 18, Solomon nominated him for astronaut training, and it had all been smooth sailing since.

Apollo Justice was a bit more reserved, but more than made up for it with his loudness. While he would tag along with Clay on whatever they were doing, he was sometimes more interested in reading and studying law. The only thing that could match Clay's passion for space was Apollo's passion for law.

And then came the HAT-2 launch, and both of them were taken from him. Not that he remembered much of the actual event; getting drugged can do that to you.

Before he knew it, he was sitting in the Detention Center on suspicion of stabbing and killing Clay. Not an hour after his arrest had been made official, Apollo barged in and asked to defend him. Of course, he had accepted. Although he hadn't been excited about it. He had had a bad feeling about the whole thing. Turns out his intuition was right.

On the day of his trial, Apollo had done a sterling job as usual. And then the trial was interrupted by a bomb.

A small tear started to form in Solomon's eye.

He hadn't heard about it until after that bomb technician had been incarcerated. And at first, he had refused to believe it. But when Metis' daughter came with a new guy, both of them obviously hiding their devastation behind hundred-watt smiles, Solomon knew. Apollo had passed on.

"Hey, Sol? Earth... or whatever... to Sol!"

Solomon was shaken out of his reverie by his partner.

"Sorry, man", Solomon said with a slightly sheepish grin. "Just... thinking."

"Yeah? Well, we have some samples to collect, so get your mind out of the space clouds!" said his partner with a good-natured smile.

"Alright", Solomon smiled back.

He bent over to pick up a rock. It looked fairly ordinary. As he straightened up, he saw the Earth. He smiled sadly.

I guess it's still a while until I get to see you again, guys. Don't worry, though. We'll meet again on the dark side of the moon.

And then he sighed.

And then he started.

Maybe he was imagining things, but he could swear he had heard someone saying "You're fine!" somewhere.

And he smiled. Serenely.

Author's note:

Wow, half a year since I updated. I'm very, very sorry.

I had a bit of a hard time finding a good concept for this chapter, and school has kept me busy. I'm currently working on my degree project, which does take up a lot of my time. For this reason, I can't really promise that I'll update more regularly, but I'll try.

Anyway, sorry for not updating in so long. If you guys have been holding on to this story for this long, you're all troopers.