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Chapter 96 - The Administrator[]
Tharkad Shipyard
Gasthaus station
Tharkad system
Lyran Commonwealth
3150
Outside...in vacuum...Sharon floated in the black.
"You want to go. I know you do." her grandfather floated in front of her, Nathan Roshak as he was in the last years of his life. "You have a duty, Sharon. Patrick doesn't have your imagination, your potential. As much as you want to go out there and see what hasn't been seen before, you have a duty to your people, and I know it's hard."
Suction tubes in her helmet scavenged tears as she floated. "People rely on us, Sharon. W have to be strong for them."
The humiliation she felt was real. They're going to call me a crank, a fool, a dupe. everything I've built will be torn down because of...
She remembered the mockery and the teasing as a child, when she admitted to believing that humanity couldn't be god's only children. The sarcasm from teachers who insisted on Fermi's paradox and a human-centric universe, the jokes in training and in the field.
Nobody is going to believe it, even with what we found. She was certain someone would accuse her of creating the hoax.
It would hurt everything she's worked so hard for, everything she built. They'll never forgive me for this, because they'll never believe. It's not a hoax, not without that first contact!
She reached up to the helmet latch.
"Sharon! come inside, We need to talk!" Trillian's override on her suit radio-the overrides were something Sharon had insisted on. "Come inside, Admiral, right NOW!!"
She lowered her hand, and the helmet latch clicked back into place.
"Aye mum." she said.
"People are depending on you, to be strong, Sharon. don't disappoint them." Grandfather's voice in her head, sounding sad.