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eBook Category: Science Fiction
eBook Description: The first human mission to Alpha Centauri took a generation to reach that system. Now, as they prepare to return home, they discover a new and much faster ship approaching, one that will reach home--and reap all the glory--years before they do.

eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: Analog, 1998
Fictionwise Release Date: September 2002

54 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [74 KB], eReader (PDB) [30 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [17 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [16 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [68 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [88 KB], hiebook (KML) [70 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [47 KB], iSilo (PDB) [14 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [18 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [46 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [27 KB]
Words: 4509
Reading time: 12-18 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

"A nice story about new technology, old technology, and how they can end up complementing one another."--Michael H. Payne, Tangent Online (Learn more about Tangent Online, the Internet's leading SF&F short fiction review website)

Douglass Taliaferro groggily pulled himself into the bridge of the Armstrong against the tug of tenth-gee deceleration. He had been asleep for twenty-four years, and as captain, was awakened some hours before the other three crewmembers. Fifty years to Alpha Centauri and back, and now Earth was two hundred million kilometers distant. One week away. Unimaginably close.

First things first. He transmitted a message to Earth, one he had composed before entering cryostasis, announcing their return. He appended a thorough upload of their data banks, all the information they had gathered on their mission, including a detailed inventory of samples.

He didn't include his subordinates' actions in the last days before leaving Centauri. No real use. They had lost enough already.

As the message went out, he began a long, pleasantly numbing checklist. Near the end, he looked at computer logs of course corrections during their return leg. He expected to see one big one early on.

There were five.

Taliaferro hung loosely in his seat harness for a moment, absorbing what that meant, wondering what the others would think. Suddenly, the board chirped with an incoming message. It was their command center, replying even while Armstrong's upload continued.

He put the message on screen, surprised that anyone cared any more. Not after Tsiolkovsky changed all their plans...