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eBook Category: Science Fiction
eBook Description: With a scant two months until his discharge, the last thing Cuppen wanted was an assignment to the faster-than-light shuttle project. Especially after what happened to the last technician...

eBook Publisher: Rosetta Solutions, Inc., Published: 1997
Fictionwise Release Date: November 2001

27 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [116 KB], eReader (PDB) [54 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [29 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [28 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [89 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [100 KB], hiebook (KML) [100 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [87 KB], iSilo (PDB) [24 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [31 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [69 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [43 KB]
Words: 8300
Reading time: 23-33 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

Sam Cuppen skated through the crowded corridors of HQ, Luna, ignoring regulations that required a slow shuffle in the slight gravity. He scattered a covey of civilians and called a word of explanation as he moved on.

"Short!"

The crowd around him couldn't touch his high spirits. Most of the faces were stern, but here and there in the mixed uniforms, Cuppen thought he saw a smile, a sympathetic wink, a wistful scowl: other servicemen who knew, or yearned to know, the feeling that separation was close, very close. It was so nice not to care.

Cuppen kicked himself into the right cross-corridor, then hopped to a stop. The hallway was nearly empty, meaning that it probably led to high-echelon offices. Who was this Colonel Copolino who had summoned him so abruptly? Tendrils of authority pushed through his cloak of FIGMOsity. His stomach stirred with a fear of arbitrary orders and sudden asshole whims that could make his small but precious life miserable.

The secretary waved Cuppen through and he reported to the Chief, Special Projects. Colonel Copolino gestured him to a chair with a brusqueness that dismissed manners for expediency. The spaceman tucked his Fuckit-I-Got-My-Orders attitude more carefully inside a military frame of behavior.