|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
Red Star
Times Past, 1965
Red Star Rising
Siberia, 1965.
The dishevelled prisoner was brought forth before the panel sitting behind a long table in the poorly lit room. He sat in a wooden chair put before him and a guard stood to either side of him. The large man sat straight and proud despite his bedraggled appearance.
"Igor Kriss?" the black trenchcoated man sitting in the center of the table said, taking a long drag off of his cigarette. He was obviously KGB.
"Yes," the prisoner replied.
"If it were up to me, you would not be given this opportunity. Fortunately for you, it is not up to me."
"Yes, Comrade Zastrow," Igor Kriss said.
"I am not your comrade," Zastrow said. "I do not call those in the habit of embarassing the USSR 'comrade.'" He was referring to the incident in which the government, seeking to prove its superiority, told Cosmonaut Igor Kriss to tell the world of how the USSR was the first to reach space. Kriss, being a steadfastly honest man, told the world that an American had been there first and saved his life. The man had been Captain Atom.
"Do you regret your actions?" another man on the panel asked.
"I regret that my actions brought embarassment to my country," Kriss said. "I wish to make amends."
"I suppose that will have to do," Zastrow said. "Are you aware of the dangers of the experiment?"
"I am."
"Good. The government is not willing to sacrifice any of its other cosmonauts at this time for this process. But your experience, coupled with your particular situation, makes you right for this job." He turned to another member of the panel and held out his hand. "His file."
The file was passed down the line of uniformed men and handed to Zastrow, who stamped it "RELEASE" and then handed it to one of the two uniformed soldiers standing by Igor Kriss. "Escort Cosmonaut Kriss to his plane."
***
Six months later...
Igor Kriss prayed silently as his rocket was fired into space. At the end of the experiment, he would either be a hero or a corpse. No... not even a corpse. He would be nothing if it failed.
***
"What if this doesn't work?" someone asked Zastrow.
"Then we find someone else and start over. Igor Kriss was the most expendable for the moment."
"The rocket has reached position," one of the technicians said as monitors showed the rocket reaching the same area of space Nathaniel Adam's had five years earlier.
"Now," Zastrow said.
"Now," the technician said into his headset.
***
Igor Kriss closed his eyes and thought of his family in Moscow. If this failed, he will at least have given them back their honor. He hit the large red button on the console, and the rocket exploded in a fiery atomic blast.
***
All eyes in the control room watched as the clock crawled by. Do not let this have failed, Zastrow thought. This project was his baby. It would be a terrible blight upon his record if it failed.
Suddenly, there was a flash, and Igor Kriss materialized in the control room, glowing brilliantly. Radiation monitors sounded off as their needles darted wildly and technicians ran forward to get him into a containment suit.
"Welcome back, Comrade Kriss," Zastrow said with a thin, satisfied smile, "or should I say 'Red Star'?"