A/N: This is it! Once again I apologize for the long delay. Not only has my schedule gotten even more hectic (if that were possible) but writer's block really hit me in a big way. After several revisions though I settled on a version I like. I hope you enjoy this last chapter (in two parts) and the epilogue. Oh yeah I owe the title to a book a read a while back by Sidney Sheldon. It was a cool title so I hope he doesn't mind me ripping it.

This final chapter is dedicated to the brave crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia. May their example continue to inspire others in the great exploration of space and the unknown.

Chapter 16 – If Tomorrow Comes, Part I

"Captain, we have successfully docked with the…thing," Minato informed Yurika as she powered down the ship's engines. The massive structure had formed a giant conical extrusion as the Nadesico had neared it. They had parked on the side of it after Suzuki had informed them it was a dock. The facility now filled the Nadesico's view screen only allowing a small portion of Saturn to be visible. There was a gentle shake as the dock molded itself to fit the Nadesico's airlocks and soon a green light on Ruri's console indicated they could leave the ship.

"The docking connection is complete, Captain. Sensors indicate an atmosphere similar to that of terraformed Mars. High in carbon dioxide but very breathable," Ruri added in.

"Right. Yeah I guess we'll board this thing now…" Yurika stammered intimating indecision.

"I promise nothing bad will happen. It's only a bigger version of what you already have in the cargo hold," Suzuki reassured her. Yurika looked to Akito for support . He nodded and took her hand. That was all the prodding she needed.

"Let's see who should come with us. We'll be boarding now and we'll probably need all the expertise we can get. Of course, AKITO, Ruri, Inez, Goat, and Ryoko!" she said making a V sign. "Father, I would like you to join us as well," Yurika asked him. The Admiral nodded.

"Of course, we will go fully armed," he said giving Suzuki a suspicious stare.

"If it makes you feel more comfortable," Suzuki said shrugging her shoulders.

"Megumi, bring up Jun and Erina on the screen." Jun and Erina soon came up with noticeably concerned expressions on their faces.

"Yurika, what happened? It's like part of that thing reached out and grabbed you. Is everyone alright?" he asked.

"We're fine, it was just some sort of automatic docking mechanism. Are you and Erina sure you can handle the Jovians?" she asked now showing concern herself.

"If you hurry your ass up and finish down there we won't have to!" Erina snapped. "We'll watch our backs just please make haste!"

"Gee, you don't have to be so mean Erina. Thanks you two!" Yurika said. "We'll keep in touch."

"Can you raise the field from the facility up to protect us?" Jun asked with a sudden insight. Yurika realizing the potential looked at Suzuki hopefully.
"When the field is up it takes all of the computer's power and shuts down everything else. We won't be able to use it and find out anything if we do that," Suzuki replied. Yurika nodded. If that happened they would be safe but they would have come all this way for nothing AND not be able to jump out and back to Earth. It was a risk they would have to take.

"Let's go then. Get any equipment you think we may need Inez," Yurika ordered. Inez nodded. "We'll meet at the airlock in thirty minutes." Everyone left the bridge to go and prepare themselves. The chain of command made Minato the captain in the absence of the other crew members and she began to prepare accordingly.

"Well, I guess it's just us four. She said to Megumi, Yukina, and Hikaru. You think you can handle the auxiliary systems Hikaru?" she asked. Hikaru nodded giving an enthusiastic smile. "Excellent, we may have to get ready to run out of here at a moment's notice."

"I have a bad feeling about today," Megumi added. "It just seems like we've been so lucky all this time and it all may run out today. Kusakabe seems like the kind of man who will stop at nothing to achieve his aims. Even more so than Akatsuki."

"He had my brother killed!" Yukina stammered shaking. "My brother only wanted peace and he gave him a bullet instead. How could I have been so blind to follow him all that time. Maybe Suzuki was right…maybe humanity can't handle this kind of power."

"War often blinds us to many obvious things Yukina. Tsukumo, your brother, was a great man. He believed that humanity could become something that could handle this and so do I," Minato said. "Who could have known I would ever have even considered liking a Jovian, much less loving one."

**********************************

Yurika showed up at Akito's room ten minutes before their rendezvous time. He let her in and she noticed that a picture of his parents was on his computer view screen.

"This must be hard for you. This was the last thing your father wanted and now you are here. What do you want to do?" Yurika asked putting her arm around his waist.

"I'm not sure. I'm not even sure what he would have done if he had made it here in his lifetime," Akito said wistfully looking at the picture of them holding him when he was three years old. I can just try to follow the example he set in opposing Nergal's or any government's desire to monopolize this power from the rest of humanity. There has to be some good that can be gained from this but not if someone like Kusakabe or Akatsuki holds it." He looked in Yurika's eyes. "Thank you for supporting me all this time, even when I didn't want your help," he finished.

"Akito…" she whispered embracing him. They stood in embrace until their enchantment was broken by Ruri's hologram.

"Akito, Captain. You are now late for your own appointed meeting time," Ruri said. Akito and Yurika jumped looking at the time and quickly ran out. They arrived at the airlock out of breath from running the full length of the Nadesico. Admiral Misumaru gave Yurika a firm look and she instantly reassumed the decorum necessary for a captain.

"Let's…*huff….go," she breathed. Goat opened the airlock and the group stepped through, lead by Suzuki, into the unknown.
**********************************

"First officer, report!" Kusakabe bellowed.

"Sir, we have a fleet of approximately thirty-five fully armed battleships. We will reach the assigned coordinates in approximately two hours sir!" the First Officer responded.

"Excellent, notify the High Command that we don't need any more reinforcements and we will contact them again once we are victorious."

"Yes sir!"

Kusakabe smiled at the brilliance of his plan. The Nadesico and her friends were probably monitoring the decoy fleet buildup he had commanded. His fleet had secretly jumped to a position off the right flank of the Nadesico. They thought they had about seven hours until the Jovian fleet arrived. They were actually about to engage in combat in less time than it took to watch a movie. That ditzy Captain Misumaru wanted to play games and tactics? Let her see if she can figure this one out. This time he was playing for keeps and there would be no mistakes!

"Akatsuki, is everything ready on your part?" he asked.

"If your men perform, I can do my job," Akatsuki replied back tersely.

"My men, WILL do their job. It's your fuck ups I'm worried about. This is your last chance Nagare," Akatsuki said. Akatsuki hid any displeasure he had at being referred to on a first name basis. He didn't want to antagonize this fool.

"All I need to do is get on the Excalibur and I'll be fine…" the thought. The Chairman of Nergal was never lacking a scheme and was already plotting the demise of both the Nadesico and his current captor. "The risk will be terrible but oh the victory will be so sweet…" Akatsuki thought.

*************************************
The away team of the Nadesico proceeded with trepidation down a long, dark corridor. The only light to guide them was the light emitting from the Nadesico through the airlock they had just passed through and the flashlights Goat had distributed before they departed. The walls of the structure had a sleek and mercurial composition. They were so fluid that they seemed to be made of some sort of liquid. However, touching them dispelled such an optical illusion since they were as hard and cool as any solid surface.

Inez ran her hands along the walls with a childlike wonder. "Amazing…there are no joints, no nuts, no bolts, it is one seamlessly constructed whole. Mankind's technological wizardry pales in the face of such a masterpiece of design and genius…" The rest stared around in wonder as well at the amazing makeup of the place.

"Suzuki, why is it so dark?" Akito asked. "Shouldn't the power be restored now?"

"Well, technically yes. But it's trying to boot up the computer system now so we may be in the dark for a while until everything is working. It would be best if we went to the central core now. If there is any evidence of what happened over the last few years it would be there. Let's go," she finished and began walking into the dark corridor. After a second of hesitation, Akito and Yurika followed her and they were followed in turn by the rest of the team.

"Something about this is creepy," Yurika muttered. The flashlights revealed ahead of them nothing but a continuing corridor while behind the light from the Nadesico slowly faded to the point of providing little useful illumination.

"Everyone hold hands. The last thing we need is to lose somebody in here," Goat bellowed. In agreement, everyone quickly grabbed the person closest to them forming a human chain that snaked through the passageways with Suzuki at the head.

"So, with this larger jump computer we can go anywhere we want?" Inez asked as they continued walking.

"Well, within a given range. For densely populated regions of space we had large computers, but for sparse regions we needed to put jump computers on the ships themselves. This computer was just recently built before I went to sleep since we were finally having enough traffic in this part of space to justify one," Suzuki explained.

"Amazing…" Inez said again.

After walking for almost an hour, the crew was growing noticeably nervous and weary. "Wait, let's take a quick break." Admiral Misumaru finally asked. Suzuki turned and confronted him.

"We don't have much time as it is. We should be there soon, we can't waste time sitting around," she sternly rebuked him.
"I have to agree though. I'm tired too," Yurika said looking pitiful.

"Can't you just jump us there?" Ryoko asked.

"This facility requires such precise calculations it shields out any boson jumping not facilitated by its own computer. Since it is probably not yet active, we cannot use the jump computer on the Nadesico to get into the center of the facility. Our only way is to walk for now. It is only about twenty more minutes ahead, I promise."

Not pleased by her bluntness, but seeing the logic of her argument they all agreed to continue on. After twenty minutes, true to her word, they arrived. The tunnel abruptly ended and they entered a room of an almost unimaginable scale. Goat set off some magnesium flares to illuminate their surroundings. The chamber was circular with three other corridor openings separated from the one they stood in at equal intervals. What was shocking, however, was in the middle of the room. Above them was one of the most awesome sights they had ever beheld.

A giant cylinder, made completely of chulip crystal and intricately marked with trillions of small grooves and designs stretched levitated above them without support. It extended above their heads like a massive shaft into a tunnel that seemed to stretch on literally for miles.

"My God…" Admiral Misumaru said gaping at the massive monolith. Ruri, who had previously been quiet, absorbed by the wonder of their surroundings, was finally compelled to speak up.

"This must be the computer. The engravings and material seem very similar to the jump computer on the Nadesico. But something seems wrong," she said with a tremor in her voice. Even Ruri's normally placid exterior had been shaken by the magnificence of it all.

"You are correct Ruri. This is what I had told you all about. Now I can make sure we can get this thing started," she replied. Ruri nodded but still looked at it all uneasily.

"Wait! If Ruri has suspicions, I damn well will not permit you to start this thing," Admiral Misumaru said stepping forward.

"This must be done. Didn't you realize that when you came here?" Suzuki asked. Suddenly Ruri realized what was wrong.

"Suzuki-san. That shaft above us…it's too long," she started. Inez looked at Ruri and then back at the computer. She then slowly nodded her head.

"Ruri is right. This facility does not seem have a radius large enough to support such a structure. If you take into account our average speed and our rate of ascent through the corridor, we should be only a few hundred meters below its upper surface. There is no way that the computer can stretch for what seems like kilometers above our head," Inez said rattling out her conclusions as fast as her brain could calculate them.

"That's it, this has gone far enough!" Admiral Misumaru shouted. He reached into his coat and pulled out a military issue pistol. Yurika jumped with fright.

"Father! What are you doing?!" she asked running towards him.

"Stay away Yurika! This has gone far enough. What we are seeing is physically impossible! You mentioned nothing like this Suzuki Miaka, Heather Snowden, or whatever the hell you are!" he yelled pointing the gun towards her.

"You seem to have forgotten your agreement to trust me?" Suzuki noted, seemingly unperturbed by the weapon pointed at her midsection.

"Trust? Trust is earned not given on a whim! Let's see how much trust you deserve? You have lied to each and every person you have encountered over the last thirty years about the basic facts of your existence. Then you tell us that you are going to come clean and now you bring us here to what is supposedly just another computer but could be anything! Do you think I am going to let myself be another one of your pawns?" Admiral Misumaru said steadily approaching her.

"Father, please!" Yurika shrieked.

"Admiral, we don't have much time, this may be our only way out of this," Akito said.

"Exactly. This could send you home," Suzuki said still standing her ground as Admiral Misumaru cautiously came towards her.

"You may have brainwashed my daughter and her boyfriend but I won't be so deceived," he exclaimed.

Suzuki sighed. "Fine, shoot me," she said finally. At this Admiral Misumaru stopped. He had expected denials, accusations, and maybe even pleading. Her immediate offer to surrender took him by surprise.

"What game are you playing here?" he asked.

"If we don't hurry and get this working, the Jovians will come. With numerical superiority they will defeat us. We will all be killed or taken captive. They will probably try to force me to activate this and countless suffering could be brought to both your people and others you don't even know about. I'd rather die than see that. So, if you think that I shouldn't do what we came here for, kill me now. At least the Jovians or UEF won't be able to use me to activate this."

Suzuki began unzipping the front of her uniform. "Here," she said pointing to a region midway between her sternum and adam's apple. "Shoot here. That way you can kill me so that the nannites in my blood won't be able to heal me," she finished.

"NO!" Akito yelled diving between the Admiral and Suzuki. "This is crazy! Don't you see Admiral? She could have killed and betrayed us a hundred times and she hasn't. Please!"

"Akito, I completely understand this situation but we have no idea what we are getting into. You are biased since she helped you escape the Cosmos. This is not time for nostalgia. You have to look at the facts. It's only when she was nearly killed and we saw her capabilities that she came clean."

"I'm not moving," he said. In a show of support Yurika came to his side as well.

"Father, I have always trusted your counsel and advice. For once, please listen to and trust mine. These circumstances are not the best way to forge trust but trust has been forged. We are all going to either escape here together or die here together. Please see that!" she pleaded with him.

"Damnit Yurika!" he yelled clinching his teeth. Ruri soon joined Akito and Yurika as human shields for Suzuki. The stalemate lasted for what seemed like an eternity. Suddenly, Admiral Misumaru felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked out of the corner of his eyes to see Ryoko looking at him pleadingly.

"Please, Admiral. You know I have felt the same misgivings as you about her, but this time we just have to make a bet and hope for the best."

"Ryoko, you know she can't completely be trusted…" he continued and then stopped. Ryoko put her left arm around his shoulder and with her right hand gently held his hand with the gun.

"Please, Misumaru-san" she said slowly lowering his hand. The Admiral was shocked as he noticed his resistance slowly dissipating. His hand began to lower under Ryoko's guidance until it pointed at the ground. Suddenly, the gravity of what he had just done hit him and he slowly let go of the gun. He looked down as it clanged on the floor once and then allowed quiet to reign once more. He raised his head and first looked at Ryoko. Improbably, she was smiling at him. He then turned to Suzuki and her three protectors.

"I…I'm…," he stammered. Yurika ran over to him and embraced him.

"I understand father, I understand…" she said. He looked up from her embrace to Suzuki and slowly nodded.

"Forgive me. Please, keep your promise," he asked her. She nodded.

"You are an honorable man, Admiral. If you forgive and trust me, I can only do the same," Suzuki replied to him smiling. "Also, I can answer your question now, Ruri," she said smiling.

"So Inez and I are right about it being too large?" Ruri inquired.

"Yes, you see. The corridor above you is not an illusion. It is an elaborate work of construction. However, this construction was not done with materials, it was done with space-time itself. In order to house the massive boson jump computer we would need to perform interstellar calculations efficiently we created a corridor with a special space-time curvature. The boson jump computer you see above you stretches for about 10,000 km, but the corridor itself stretches into infinity."

Inez nearly fell over. "How is this possible?!"

"There are many wonders of ours I would show you Inez if we only had time. But now we must get to work. I will begin activating the computer. I will need your pad and your help. Everyone else may be able to help as well but for now just relax," she said. Suzuki walked over to one wall and placed her hand on it closing her eyes. To everyone's amazement the floor below them began to morph and change itself---into chairs.

"Please sit. They are safe I assure you," she said. The astonished crew sat down and watched with wonder as the wall suddenly came alive with displays and symbols that seemed to indicate a form of writing or mathematical notation. "We will be ready, I promise," she said still concentrating on activating the computer. The walls self-illuminated eliminating the need for flashlights. Everyone sat spellbound.

"Never in all my years, would I have ever dreamed of seeing something like this," Ryoko started.

"Neither would I, and I have twice as many as you do!" Admiral Misumaru, who was sitting next to her, replied. She chuckled and continued to watch the scene around her.

*************************************

Jun stood monitoring the space around them with the utmost vigilance and caution. The Jovian fleet massing behind them still wouldn't arrive for another seven hours. They had time. Earlier, Erina had brought up the point that they could possibly use Saturn's moons and ring debris to hide themselves to prepare for an ambush when they arrive. Jun had agreed and she had decided to send a group of probes out to investigate for good hiding places. So now they played the waiting game.

Everyone was so tense, they didn't even bother to hide it anymore. This could be their last day and that was not an overstatement. With no clear means of escape they could only hope to fight long enough for the Nadesico crew to figure out a brilliant strategy to get them out. But deep in the recesses of his mind, not even Jun put that much faith in Yurika's abilities. They needed something bigger. They needed a miracle.

"Captain Jun, Captain Won is contacting us. I'm bringing her up on the screen," his communications officer informed him. Jun nodded and Erina appeared. He was shocked by the look in her eyes. It betrayed an intense fear and helplessness that he wouldn't have expected from her.

"Jun! I was sending some of the probes to the far side of Saturn to investigate possible ambush routes," she began.

"I know, we discussed this earlier, what's wrong Erina?" he asked feeling very uneasy.

"I lost contact with them all. At first I thought it was a blackout by Saturn's atmosphere or some sort of disturbance and I dispatched more to the same location. I lost those as well. Finally, I sent a last batch of probes with two Aestevalis units in order to get a better idea of what was going on…the Aestevalis's came into contact with a grasshopper scout patrol which they engaged and destroyed."

"I don't like the sound of this," Jun said.

"You won't. The probes finally took their data and found the unspeakable. Jun, we've been outflanked. There is a Jovian fleet approaching us from our right flank and it is MUCH closer," she explained frantically.

"How close is MUCH closer?" Jun asked.

"Thirty minutes arrival."

"THIRTY MINUTES!!!" Jun yelled. This was going from worse to impossible. They had no time to lose. "All hands battle stations! Erina, link our battle computers and prepare to engage," Jun said

"Roger, we need a battle plan and quick!" Erina continued.

"Yes, we'll do so. First, we must alert the Nadesico," he said commanding his officer to bring the Nadesico up on the screen. Minato's face soon appeared.

"Hello Jun, I am the acting commander. What's wrong?" she asked seeing his face.

"Minato, we've been played. We are about to come under attack. Warn the boarding crew now!" Minato's face instantly showed alarm.

"We haven't been able to contact them since they entered that thing. We'll have to send somebody," she replied. "Do you need our support?"

Jun thought for a moment. "Minato, you don't have enough crew to put up a fight effectively and we need you all to make sure they don't dock with the station. Send someone to alert them for now and that is all," he finished.

"I understand, Nadesico out," she said closing the broadcast. "Izumi! I want you to go alert the team, wherever they are, in the station."

"I want to go to!" Hikaru said waving from her wheelchair.

"Hikaru, you are in no condition…" Minato started.

"In no condition to fight but let me help somehow!" she pleaded. "Anyway this wheelchair can hit 60 mph (100 km/h) in 3 seconds!"

"Well give me a ride!" Izumi said sitting in her lap. Before Minato could object they had zoomed off the bridge.

*************************************

"Weapons report!" Jun yelled.

"Weapons ready," the tactical officer replied.

"Aestevalis's report!"

"Ready!"

"Cosmos report!"

"I'm ready. Jun…good luck," Erina said and then disappeared from view.

"Enemy will engage in approximately ten minutes!" his tactical officer informed him. Jun looked at the sensor readout and felt his heart would sink. The force was smaller than the one they had been investigating earlier, but the advantage of surprise diminished any hopes that the paucity of ships would make this fight any easier. About two thousand grasshoppers, thirty-five battleships, and that massive monstrosity that Kusakabe was on rounded out their opponents. There was no way around it. This was going to suck.

Jun muttered a quick prayer. A hope and a prayer was all they had.

*************************************

"We seem to have been spotted Admiral Kusakabe," his first officer informed him.

"No matter. The trap has been sprung and any options by our prey to escape have now been closed. Keep sharp men and tonight will be a night of victory for not just Jupiter but all of humanity!" Kusakabe bellowed.

"We're ready admiral!" his first officer informed him.

"Great, let the grasshoppers tender up our meat before the we cook it!"

"Aye sir!"

*************************************

"Grasshoppers at 11 o'clock through 2 o'clock sir!" Erina's tactical officer said alarmed.

"So it begins. Our Aestevalis's are already launched. Pull them back and prepare for a joint gravity blast by the Cosmos and Excalibur," she commanded.

"Aye sir!"

The grasshoppers steadily approached. They were one huge, yellow mass on the radar screen and their advance seemed inexorable.

"Twenty seconds…fifteen….ten"

"FIRE!" Erina yelled. The linked computers of the Cosmos and Excalibur fired a coordinated blast into the heart of the approaching grasshopper mass. Jun followed up with a secondary blast from the faster recharging Excalibur. Explosions filled the view screen as hundreds of grasshoppers were vaporized on impact, destined to become part of the omnipresent dust and particles that filled galactic space. It was a good hit. But it wasn't good enough.

"Grasshoppers engaging! There are still about three hundred left!" the tactical officer yelled.

"Damned pests," Erina cursed. Use our close range guns to take them out. Recharge the gravity blast cannon ASAP. Dump all possible power into the distortion shields!" The grasshoppers converged on the two ships like angry locusts buzzing around in a malicious cloud that promised to deliver only misery and death.

*************************************

"Captain Jun! We're taking some hits here! Please advise!" the Excalibur systems officer reported.

"Will that technique you told us about work?" Jun asked her.

"Sir, it's only theoretical and it requires two ships, which we have, but it's risky. If it fails we will be defenseless to this swarm!" she said alarmed.

"Well we aren't doing that great right now! Contact the Cosmos and tell them we are initiating the Code Name Double Team." Jun learned about Code Name Double Team from Erina. During their research, Nergal had realized that the distortion fields of some ships created large amounts of energy and friction when they came close enough. Code Name Double Team called for two ships to synchronize their fields and cause them to resonate with each other…and fry everything around them with the residual radiation. It was risky because the shields could fail completely but it was needed now.

"Cosmos replies. They are initiating Double Team!" the systems operator responded. The ship instantly shook as gravitational tidal forces rocked both vessels as their fields interacted with each other. The grasshoppers, though their AI was not super advanced, knew something was wrong and began to flee. Too late though as a massive blast of gravitational radiation first fried their brains and then reduced their bodies to metallic gas.

"Double Team successful! All enemy grasshoppers are destroyed!" the tactical officer reported. The entire bridge cheered. Jun nodded acknowledging their small victory. The worst was yet to come.

*************************************

"Admiral Kusakabe! The grasshopper fleet has been completely destroyed! The UEF forces took little losses and stand victorious!" the weapons officer stammered. The entire bridge gasped in shock.

"You cowards! They are not victorious. We have only begun to show our might. Advance the entire flotilla now and engage these ships. Tonight we will celebrate our triumph and the impending victory of the righteous Jovian Empire!" Kusakabe's stirring words did the trick. The crew threw itself into battle preparations with even more fervor than before. In each face shone a fanatic determination that would have sent chills through an ordinary person's spine. Not all were pleased with the arrangement, however.

"Admiral Kusakabe, permission to assist in preparations on the gravity blast batteries!" one of Kusakabe's closest men, Lieutenant Seki, asked.

"Permission granted, be back at 0300," Kusakabe replied.

"Yes, sir!" Lieutenant Seki replied snapping to attention. However, he left the bridge with no intention on going to the gravity blast engine room. He proceeded instead to his quarters to deliver a vital communication

As he walked down the corridors he had to exert an enormous amount of discipline to keep his rage from showing on his mien.

"That fool Kusakabe! Not only has he made another tactical mistake, he thinks that the High Command is foolish enough to let him seize such a powerful device," Lieutenant Seki thought. No, he is wrong. Men like Kusakabe are so arrogant they think the rest of the world is shiftless and stupid. The High Command promoted him to his current position and the High Command can take him down!

His thoughts were interrupted as he arrived at his destination. He looked around and then entered his room. First, he checked for intruders. Second, he checked for any electronic surveillance devices. Finally, he pulled a small communicator from the hollowed out center of a Jovian Gekigangar-themed novel.

"Codename Prosper, I repeat Codename Prosper do you read me?" he spoke rapidly into the communicator not bothering to hide his anxiety any longer. After a brief pause that seemed like an eternity, he received his response.

"Codename Double Edge, this is Codename Prosper. Are your affairs in order?"

"Perfectly. Await my signal and I will join you."

"Indeed. Is that bastard Akatsuki going to be a problem? You said he was in league with the admiral now."

"I believe he will be away from the ship. For what, I am not yet sure. Kusakabe is keeping his cards close to his chest for this one."

"Very well. We await your arrival. Be sure to destroy this device you are using immediately. Codename Prosper out." Seki closed the communication and immediately pressed a button that reduced the communicator to unrecognizable ash. He got up and prepared to go to the gravity blast engine room. He quietly wondered how many more sordid twists would this tale take before its end?