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REENTRY
Kathy Moffet |
There was a huge ache in the middle of
Captain Garrett's stomach as she piloted
the craft within imminent distance of
Planet Earth. The ache was for Tony
who had been forced by the illness of his
successor, Commander Willingham, to stay
behind on The Colony. The prospect of
eighteen months without seeing, touching,
sleeping with her Only was more than any
woman could be asked to bear. Yes, it had
been done countless times in wartime but this
was a time of peace, of rare international
accord. How could she live without his
warmth, his companionship, his brilliance?
It was like parting with Kieron after that
miraculous event had delayed the original
mission long enough for her to conceive
and place the infant boy in the capable
hands of two caring mothers, Tony's
and hers. She had seen her son almost
daily by interplanetary transmission, had
watched him grow to nearly school age
in the time she and Tony had started the
faraway colony with twelve other couples.
Tony was to return with her to experience
the reunion with Kieron and now they would
not be able to share the joy and the anticipation
and the parental wonder of their creation
together, of their love made complete after
ten years of trying, including years of inscrutable
medical expertise that said it could not be done.
Now the reentry, the fiery, frightening yet
somehow exhilarating return to Mother Earth.
She closed her eyes as autopilot took control,
closed her eyes but the aching for Tony would
not abate, not now and all the way through
her reassuming command of the ship into
its smooth landing atop the salt flats of Utah.
And there upon the ramp, a maternal presence
on either side, was Kieron. She regained her
sea legs through the thick metallic flight-suit,
quickened her step, met and embraced the son
she had seen only on a remote luminous screen
for the last five and a half years.
Keiron. Tony. She was embracing Keiron,
but touching Tony and the ache was going away,
going away and traversing the great void of space
that reached between here and The Colony to
her warm, feeling, brilliant and Only Man.
Tony.
Captain Garrett's stomach as she piloted
the craft within imminent distance of
Planet Earth. The ache was for Tony
who had been forced by the illness of his
successor, Commander Willingham, to stay
behind on The Colony. The prospect of
eighteen months without seeing, touching,
sleeping with her Only was more than any
woman could be asked to bear. Yes, it had
been done countless times in wartime but this
was a time of peace, of rare international
accord. How could she live without his
warmth, his companionship, his brilliance?
It was like parting with Kieron after that
miraculous event had delayed the original
mission long enough for her to conceive
and place the infant boy in the capable
hands of two caring mothers, Tony's
and hers. She had seen her son almost
daily by interplanetary transmission, had
watched him grow to nearly school age
in the time she and Tony had started the
faraway colony with twelve other couples.
Tony was to return with her to experience
the reunion with Kieron and now they would
not be able to share the joy and the anticipation
and the parental wonder of their creation
together, of their love made complete after
ten years of trying, including years of inscrutable
medical expertise that said it could not be done.
Now the reentry, the fiery, frightening yet
somehow exhilarating return to Mother Earth.
She closed her eyes as autopilot took control,
closed her eyes but the aching for Tony would
not abate, not now and all the way through
her reassuming command of the ship into
its smooth landing atop the salt flats of Utah.
And there upon the ramp, a maternal presence
on either side, was Kieron. She regained her
sea legs through the thick metallic flight-suit,
quickened her step, met and embraced the son
she had seen only on a remote luminous screen
for the last five and a half years.
Keiron. Tony. She was embracing Keiron,
but touching Tony and the ache was going away,
going away and traversing the great void of space
that reached between here and The Colony to
her warm, feeling, brilliant and Only Man.
Tony.