
The WritersWeb

A FREE ONLINE/Emailed Ezine promoting quality literature
and providing an outlet for aspiring writers.
"JUST A LOT OF GOOD READING"

                                                                                             
WELCOME TO .......                                 .                          
                                                                                    
             The WritersWeb (sm)                                                                      

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                   CONTENTS:  #2        
                                                                                                                                    
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1) ABOUT THE WritersWeb  ( WHAT IT IS / WHAT IT IS NOT )
2) WHAT WE BELIEVE
3) PUBLISHER'S CORNER
4) EDITORIAL
5) TO THE ASPIRING WRITER
6) THIS ISSUE'S FEATURE:            
      PART II of WHEN THE MUSIC STOPS                                                               
                    A novel about YOUR future ...by FRED ALLEN                         
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PLEASE NOTE: This edition does not include graphics, as on 
     some of our other versions, (SORRY ABOUT THAT...:-)
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THE WritersWeb

WHAT IT IS:
This publication is just what it claims to be on the title page
a showcase for good quality online books and other types of
literature. ( Mainly, just good reading.) Obviously the publisher 
wants to get his views on as wide a platform as possible so as
to expose them to a large audience, but at the same time is 
very willing and anxious to present any kind of well-written 
literature in its own light. (see the section to the aspiring writer)
     
                        
WHAT IT IS NOT:
While the feature article in its EMailed form does include
mention of our sponsors, (some very nice and generous people
who support this project), you generally won't find as much of it
as on a lot of websites and newsletters. I could grow very old 
waiting for a homepage to come up on my screen, only to 
find that it is not what I want or expect. Beautifully done graphics
are a joy to behold, and I know it adds to profits, but I look for
content, as I'm sure many others do also, and when I want
some information, I expect it....RIGHT NOW!
The WritersWeb is not exactly anti - copyright, but the material
here is free to you.           ( Proverbs 23:23 ) read it........

You may print it, copy it, shred it, mail it to your neighbors and 
friends, put it on a telephone pole, tack it up on your bathroom wall, 
make clipart/screensavers/shareware out of it, or anything else that 
you feel like doing with it. Some credit would be nice but it is not 
really necessary. 

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THE WritersWeb

1) WHAT WE BELIEVE:
2) WHAT WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO BELIEVE:
Actually, these are one and the same. Of course, if all of us 
were totally honest, we would admit that we would like to see
a world where everyone believed the same things. If all of us
were in absolute, total agreement, then we would have a world
with no conflict, right? A world of peace and tranquility.Sounds
good, but with people being the way they are, and if you know 
history, you are also aware that this is what those who built 
the tower of Babel believed. Some say that this was just a
myth....along with all of Biblical history. ( More on this in future
issues of The WritersWeb. )
The problem, as we said in the last issue, with any thinking
along these lines is that no amount of good works ( no matter 
what you call them ) will buy you eternal life. That was bought
FOR you by the death of God's son. Jesus Christ, the Messiah,
paid the debt in our place, and asks us only to trust in that one,
very unique payment, and He will GIVE us ETERNAL LIFE!
We're not talking about religions here, but about a relationship.
Religions all try to "bind" us back to God in one way or another.
Some are good, some are not so good in the light of God's Word.
All of them are based in some way on man's good works.
The Bible says it is not the way to gain or attain Eternal Life. 
Ephesians 2:8, 9 is very clear on this subject. 
The "icing on the cake", so to speak, was that Jesus came
back from the dead to prove His claims. The resurrection
of Christ is the best-documented event in history. ( again,
more about these things in future issues. )
It made good sense to me to believe on the one who came
back from the dead, and trust Him as the one who paid for
MY sin. Why not do the same right now, and accept what
He did for you also? You have nothing to lose. Someone recently
put it this way when he saw the reality in this; "That's for me.. I 
don't want to be without a chair when the music stops!" Don't you 
dare believe it, though, just because I say so. The Bible says that 
faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (That's in
Romans 10:17.)
Find a Bible, and look for verses like John 3:16, I John 5:13, and 
John 6:47. Most Bibles have an index, if you need it to find them.
           If you have any questions, or need help, I'm here.
                   EMail me at netwritr@bellsouth.net

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PUBLISHER'S CORNER

Please take a long, hard, reasonable look at the issues that 
are presented here. God says, " Come now, and let us reason
together..." Read the rest; it's in Isaiah 1:18.
As I said in the last issue, we here at The WritersWeb don't
have all of the answers. We don't even have all of the questions!
We do think we have some answers to the important ones.
EMail us!

In issues of this 'zine, other departments, or "corners" will be
added, being careful not to overwhelm the reader with too much
at once. (I have seen that happen all too often. The 'zine hasn't
all been read and "digested" when the next one arrives.) Some
can handle it. It's a balancing act. 

COMING ATTRACTIONS:
     Recommended Reading: - A collection of websites, books,
           and other reference sources for related information.
     Biblical Studies of all kinds. (with practical applications) 
     A section for kids. (let's say, pre-teens)
     One for teenagers
     For those of college and young career ages.
     Sections and articles aimed at men/women
                                                  singles
                                                  married couples
                                                  (young & old)
     Articles titled: "Observations","Bits & Pieces", "Things 
                          People Believe". "What happened to Civility?"
I think that by now you have the point that The WritersWeb
will have a little something for everyone. Some of these
departments will be guest-written. I believe that "outsourced"
            is the current catch-phrase. Look for them.


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NOTE: We're still painting some of the rooms here at "The WritersWeb",
so please be patient and watch your step. As you proceed, you will find
                         a little bit of "Chaos in Motion".
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                  An ultimate excuse: "Actual results may vary".

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EDITORIAL

(I said most of this in the first issue of The Writer'sWeb,
It is repeated here for emphasis, not for a lack of something 
to say.)

Most of the material in this publication, as you may have already 
noticed, has a distinctive Christian-orientation and also a 
conservative flavor. This definitely does not mean that we are
anti-everything-else. Everyone is entitled to his or her own
viewpoint. Our great nation was founded on this. We respect
that. We only ask for the same tolerance to be shown for the
ideas and principles presented here. It does provoke controversy.
                              (That's OK too.)

Beginning with the next issue, letters to the editor will be printed, 
                      ...and answered. EMail us

Now, it is true that one can choose to believe just about any
thing the mind of man can conceive. One look at the news 
media will bear that out. The one question that cuts across
all of it however, is ....What is your basis for your belief
 ....for anything?
We happen to believe that there is a God, a Creator, who
for various reasons, gave us a free will to use to choose
to accept the truth as presented to us, or to believe a lie.
What it actually all boils down to is, if the Bible is in fact,
what it claims to be, then it makes good sense to try to
understand just what this book is trying to tell us. If not,
then we might as well just "keep on dancing", or "party-on",
"stick your head in the sand", or whatever passes for the 
phraseology of the day among those who have adopted
this attitude. The foreword of the current featured book 
tells it well.
  
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THOUGHT:        Try to imagine the kind of "heated discussion" 
                        Adam and Eve had after they were driven out
                                     of the garden of eden.....         
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   WE HAVE JUST A LOT OF GOOD READING AT The WritersWeb.
WE HAVE NO: chat,clipart,CNN,Dilbert,Disney,ESPN,games,genealogy,
jokes,maps,MTV,Netscape,pictures,porn,Real Estate,recipes,screensavers,
      Shareware,Sports,Stocks,Supermodels,Weather,or Yellow Pages.
                            WE HAVE NONE OF THAT!!!!
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TO THE ASPIRING WRITER:
If you, like me, have "run into the brick wall" of the
conventional, historical publishing business, then
you can appreciate what I am about to say. 
Publishing houses today are generally not accepting
the unpublished, untested writer. It is just too much of
a financial risk. ( Even I can understand that. )

It's far too expensive for them to develop a work from
an unknown, new writer. Despite all the ads in the
magazines, the odds are overwhelmingly against any
kind of success. Agents and all kinds of manuscript
"developers" always want their cut up front. ( I TRY to
understand that, too. )  Hence, you get all kinds of
self-publishing and underground publishing houses, 
etc. This is adequate, if the writer has the wherewithal,
but most don't. 

If you have a completed, or almost complete manuscript
or other work, tell us about it. What we need is a general
outline, or synopsis to consider publishing it. That's all.
The EMail address is netwritr@bellsouth.net  We will look
at almost anything, as long as it is not obscene or illegal.
( we will be the judge of that. ) Our list of subjects that we
use is taken from that used by the Library of Congress,
which we feel is more comprehensive than the older Dewey
list, but the subject matter need not be limited to that, nor
does it necessarily have to be associated with the subject
or content of this ZINE or the featured book. 
We only ask that , just as our sponsors have asked in
the EMailed version, that the material not detract from the
general agenda of the publisher. ( we will be the judge 
there, too. ) Letters to the Editor are for that. ;-)

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The BIG lie on the Internet: "This may take a minute or two to load."
                         #2 is: "Reading file...Done"     ;-)
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  The rule, written or unwritten, is NEVER talk about religion or politics.
     We' ve broken the first one, the second will be coming soon.......
                     Email us:  netwritr@bellsouth.net

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                          FEATURE
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            .......................................................
                       
            PART II - WHEN THE MUSIC STOPS
            ......................................................            
            
             (...a novel about YOUR future).

                                          



                              BY FRED ALLEN


           PLEASE NOTE: AFTER THIS ISSUE, LOOK FOR THE
                                    PREFACE, FOREWORD,                                     
                                    AND PROLOGUE, IN
                                    The ETEXT Archives at:
                http://www.etext.org/Zines/ASCII/WritersWeb/ww1.txt
    (...That way, we can deliver more pages of the book in each issue...)
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                               NO WEATHER MAPS HERE...
                            JUST A LOT OF GOOD READING
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PREFACE

If this story ever makes it to the shelves in bookstores, or onto the
net\www, or whatever media it lands on, depending on the viewpoint 
of the person making the decisions, it will most likely occupy a
space in the section reserved for the works on science-fiction.(Sci-Fi)
That will be just fine with the author, for the main goal will have
been met, as long as it is published. 
That goal is simply to communicate some good news
to some who otherwise might never hear it.
Some will look at it as pure science-fiction. It is really much much
more. It is a fantastic action-adventure tale of unsurpassed
violence and destruction. It is better than Star Wars, x-files or even
Star Trek. Why? Simply because it will all really happen in the not-so
-distant future. (Read on.) At the same time, it is a unique love story.
It is based on the one book of true prophecy, the Bible. It is one that
is concerned with a terrible time in history. It is a time that is yet to 
come, from our viewpoint. It is the period in God's own timetable when 
He takes his vengeance on Satan's world system that God has, for 
His own various reasons, allowed him to build and sustain for many
thousands of years. All true Christians have been removed from the 
scene, just as God's people were in Noah's day, along with His own
Holy Spirit. This was done so that God could initiate His judgements.
While it is a tale of extreme violence, it is, as I said, also a love story.
Please bear with me as it is disclosed.

It is the author's firm belief that around the year 95 A.D., the apostle 
named John, while he was living in exile on the Greek isle of Patmos,
was transported forward around two millenia into this period of time. 
He has done this with other individuals also. A few of these are Isaiah, 
Ezekiel, and Daniel.
John was shown the future. Much as if a native of the jungles of New 
Guinea would wonder at the marvels of a modern city, or an example
that is better still, if he were placed in the vicinity of all the terrors of 
the recent Gulf war. John was told to record all of what he saw, and 
had a difficult time doing so. It is no wonder that some have found it
a perplexing story, both to read and interpret....
Of course I am speaking of what we know today as the Biblical
book called The Revelation of Jesus Christ. The story told here
in When The Music Stops begins some time after the events begin
in chapter 4, verse 1, and is mainly about one of  the individuals who 
is caught up in a portion of what John recorded. These are....

"...things which must shortly come to pass."        ( Revelation 1:1 )
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              WE DO HAVE A LOT OF GOOD READING HERE:
  We offer: Adventure,BOOKS,Commentary,Controversy, FREE STUFF,
humor,LOVE, An Online Magazine,Music,NEWS,(even before it happens.)
                     Politics,Religion,SEX,(rated PG),Travel,  
WAR,and Sci-Fi,(better than UFO, X-Files, Star Wars, Star Trek, or NASA.
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FOREWORD

Someday soon, the music will stop.

Just look around you. It's not the music. That's only
a symptom. One of the multitude of tools or escape
mechanisms that people use to deny all of the troubles
besieging us constantly. Entertainment of many kinds,
alcohol, sex, gambling, drugs, religion, and what they
think is the final escape for some, suicide. One writer
put it well when he said the world was too bad to be true.

I remember a mechanic telling my mother once, what
he did. She asked about all the strange noises coming
from the jeep that he drove. He said that he just turned
the radio up louder. A trip on any highway will bear that
out. We ride in our air-conditioned, tightly sealed-up
world. Just turn the music up louder. Escape.

For awhile, anyway.......           


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       "The United States is the only nation that went from barbarism
                   to decadence without civilization in between.
                                                                              -Oscar Wilde
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VERSES 1-12 of CHAPTER 9 from the Biblical book called 

                   The Revelation of Jesus Christ

1. And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven 
    into the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

2. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out 
    of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the 
    air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

3. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth; and 
    unto them was given power; as the scorpions of the earth have power.

4. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of 
    the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those 
    men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

 5. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that 
     they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as 
     the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.

 6. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; 
     and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. 

 7. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared 
     unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, 
     and their faces were as the faces of men.

 8.  And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were 
      as the teeth of lions.

 9.  And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron;
      and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots
      of many horses running to battle.

10.  And they had tails like unto scorpions, there were stings
      in their tails; and their power was to hurt men five months.

11.  And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the
       bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is
       Abbadon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

12.  One woe is past; and behold, there come two woes more
       hereafter.

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PROLOGUE

"I was really getting worried about you, John. You've been
gone so long. I thought something might have happened to
you while you were gathering driftwood for the fire along the
seashore. You know that we are both growing very old."

"There was no real need to worry about me, brother. It was
the first day of the week. The day of our Lord's resurrection.
I was just sitting on the hillside, meditating."

"That was sixty years ago, John. Right now, we need to be
thinking about how to survive on this barren rock that you 
got us sent to. Boats landing here in the harbor are few and
they have no real reason for coming. They all know that we
are here because we were banished by Domitian. No one
would dare take us off, and we have to depend on what we 
get from the sea to survive."

"I know all of that, brother, but I must tell you of what has
happened to me. I must also write it all down."

"All right, if you must. There is not much else to do around
here. Tell me."

"I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me 
a great voice as of a trumpet......"  

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UPDATE:
Nick and Charlie, along with three others, are the last crew
members remaining on the space station. It has been about
three years since they were ordered to unleash their orbiting
arsenal of death and destruction to rain on the earth below.
The rest of the crew left long ago in one of the supply shuttles
to take their chances attempting to return to the surface. They
had not been heard from since they left. 
The five had just been maintaining a lonely existence there,
until a chance encounter with some orbiting debris knocked
out their primary power supply. After this was repaired, They
found that they had a more serious problem. The orbit of the
station was decaying, and they were gradually heading for a 
fiery end when the station gets low enough to re-enter the 
earth's atmosphere. A meeting was called to discuss their 
various alternatives.........
                                                                        
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NOTE: For the beginning chapters of the book, also, go to:
           http://www.etext.org/Zines/ASCII/WritersWeb/ww1.txt
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                                         CHAPTER  3

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As station chief, Charlie conducted the meeting.. He had been put in 
charge of the oversight of all operations on the station when he landed 
there four years ago. He had the rank, the seniority, and the ability to
back it up. The rank was somewhat doubtful and academic right now,
however. Rank over what?
"It looks like we will know something in a few hours whether either of
the two remaining shuttles are usable. If they are no good, then Mary
has thrown an alternate plan into the pot. It may be a viable option, bit
I personally don't buy it."
Adams chimed in. "What choice do we have? The only way to go for
us is down. If we stay here, we'll be barbequed soon enough."
"Not really." replied Charlie. "As I said, there is one really long shot."
"What's that?" asked Adams.
"The moonbase."
They all looked at him as if he had really lost it.
"I know. We haven't heard from them in a long time. They may have
thought we were lost along with everything else, and just didn't bother
to try to contact us. Our signals were probably swallowed up in all the
other radiation. If we can get over to the ship, we may be able to make
contact with the laser communicator. It may be worth a shot."

Immediately after his discharge from the hospital, Charlie had been put
in charge of a department whose  main job was the procurement of 
communications equipment for use in space. When Nick was assigned
to the station, he saw Charlie's name on the orders, and wondered whose
toes he stepped on to get sent there. No pun intended. At the time, he
didn't know that he had asked for the post. As he floated down the corridor, 
he did notice that one star was missing from Charlie's collar. Nick never
asked, and no explanation was ever volunteered.

                                                   17

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The shuttle they were going to use had to be thoroughly inspected 
and tested. The way Nick and Charlie saw it, if they were to have any 
kind of a chance, they couldn't leave the way the others did. When 
they decided to go, and they discovered that the computer disabled
the birds, they simply started disconnecting things until they got down
to bare-bones minimum. Then they guided it manually into what they 
saw as a seat-of-the-pants estimate of the right attitude for re-entry,
and they fired.
No one could tell if they made it or not. They just disappeared into the
clouds below. The computer could not track them either. The crew just
simply took too much apart.
It was agreed that they would go out to work in two-man teams. The
suits had to be tested. No one had been outside in years. They had
been able to use the robot for what little that needed to be done.

Later, as Nick passed the door to Charlie's quarters, he was invited in.
He hadn't been there for some time. He had almost forgotten what a
museum it was. Charlie had stuck all sorts of souvenirs, awards and
pictures on the walls. He could well afford the space. As station chief, 
his cabin was twice as large as most of the others, having its own
private toilet facility and dining area. Nick couldn't figure out how he
got permission to bring up all that junk. Smuggling was probably one
of Charlies lesser-known talents, he thought. 
"Nick,I want your honest and frank opinion on something." he began.
"Which way do you think those two will jump if they ever get half a
chance?"
At first, Nick wasn't sure exactly what he was getting at. He thought
about a talk they had when Adams and Peters had just come aboard.
Even then, Charlie expressed a deep feeling of distrust toward them.
Nick was aware that Charlie always had a special kind of sensitivity
about things like that. He chalked it up to a leadership requirement.
                                         .
                                                 18

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"Charlie, since it looks like you really want my opinion, I wouldn't trust 
either of those two as far as I could throw this station, even if I had a 
place to stand to hold it! You asked for it, and now you got my honest 
answer!"
Charlie showed open surprise at Nick's reply. "All right then, what do
we do about it?"
"Charlie, I think if we discover that we really don't need those two, I'd
be all for pushing them into the airlock and dumping them out like so 
much garbage, and to top it all off, I think they feel about the same way 
toward us!"
Nick was even surprised at himself by the force of his reply. He almost
had forgotten that he was capable of such an outburst. He had been
more depressed lately than he had thought possible. He downed the
anti-depressants that the Doc. had given him when he heard that Nick
was being assigned to the station. Later, he "raided" the drug locker
on the station for more. Nick wrote off his condition to the situation on
the station, and the lack of proper rest. He also knew he was kidding
himself. Charlie had noticed it too.
Later, as Nick was resting in his quarters, he reflected on his talk with
Charlie, and especially what he had said about the airlock.       
For some reason his thoughts drifted back to the mysterious and to
him, questionable disappearance of the Chaplain. He had not been
seen since just before the weapons were launched. Nick had always
thought of him as a kind of misfit out here in space. A strange duck,
overqualified and really unnecessary here. If anyone wanted religion,
there were plenty of programs beamed up from down below. All kinds.
In spite of this, Nick would stop by sometimes to see him, mostly out
of boredom. No porno, or pictures of supermodels on HIS walls. There
was a lot of sports stuff there, and the Chaplain was a good opponent
for chess, and they kept a running game going. They were good chat
sessions. What surprised Nick most was how much he knew about 
Judaism and its traditions. 

                                                19
     
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Besides the usual theological degrees, he had several earned doctorates
in engineering fields. Nick didn't understand this at all, and he asked him
about it once during one of their games. The reply was that all of that was
before he was born again.
Nick asked him what he meant by that.
He said, "Nicodemus, art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these
things?" Nick was mystified.
He went on to tell Nick that if he was really interested, he had some old
tapes that would explain it all. Nick said he would be back for them, but
later on in all the confusion of launching the weapons, they were forgotten.
No one ever saw much of the Chaplain. He usually only came out of his
quarters to eat, mostly while the others slept. Then one day when no one
had seen him for awhile, a thorough search was made. No sign of him
was found anywhere on the station. Peters suggested that he took a walk
through an airlock. It had happened before on several occasions. 
Maybe, Nick thought. He wasn't so sure that it would have been by his 
own choice, though. He went down to the Chaplain's cabin to see if he
had left some kind of last message. Anything at all...
The Chaplain's quarters were in the part of the station that used to be the
old Russian Mir space station. After the Soviet Union disintegrated, the
Russkys found they couldn't even afford to pay for supply and relief crew
rockets. They made a deal with NASA to do it. Nick said it made a good
"construction shack", and it was integrated into our station when it was
built.
The place was a total mess. Stuff was floating around everywhere. All the
lockers were open, just as if someone trashed the place while looking for
something. Nick spent awhile tidying up the best he could.
While he was doing it, he found a bunch of old tapes. He assumed that
these were what the Chaplain had spoken about over their chess game.
Maybe it was just a bunch of recipes, Nick thought. At least they were
not worn out like the rest. They might be useful.
 
                                                20    

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Nick bagged them up, along with an old player like the ones he used when
he was a kid, skating on the boardwalk at Coney Island. Those were fun
days, he thought. 
Fighting the urge to lapse deep into one of his daydreams, he closed up
the cabin and dragged the bag back to his quarters, stowing it for a later
time. He put some of his older episodes of Star Trek on the screen that 
weren't too worn out, and fell asleep.

The next day, they all got together in the suit-up room next to the airlock.
Charlie read off his list of assignments of personnel for the work periods.
The first one would be relatively short. Perers and Nick would go out and
check the nearest shuttle.
Then he announced a small surprise. Adams would stay in the airlock. He
would be suited up, ready to go in case he was needed. The robot would
also be nearby, outside.
"Why?"  Both Adams and Peters asked in chorus.
Nick defended the choice. Charlie knew that he would.
"Just in case we need help out there. Who else is around that could give
us a hand?"
Charlie thought Nick's answer sounded pretty good, even though it was a
lie, and everyone knew it. Charlie didn't want to be left alone inside with
either one of them. Todd probably wouldn't be much help, at least against
one of them. Their records showed a lot of combat experience.
When the airlock door opened, Nick was hit hard with the same feeling he
always got. It gave new meaning to the only words that came to his mind.
Breathtaking. Heartstopping. Even Disney couldn't top this. Looking out 
of a port from inside was in some ways like it, but to actually be in that 
doorway and stand on the edge of nothing was something else. You had 
to be there. To top it off, seeing the shuttles hanging out there only added 
to the feeling. One was lined up with the earth below and a little behind. 
Here was truly where words fail.
 
                                                 21

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Peters nudged Nick, and brought him out of his thoughts and back to the
job at hand. Nick looked into Peters' faceplate and knew he was having
the same thoughts. He just came out of it sooner. 
They kicked off and drifted toward the shuttle. Nick figured that if they did
it right, they would only have to make a small mid-course correction with
their hand thrusters to make it.
He was more than right. They drifted right onto the engines, and pulled 
themselves forward along the hull using a line that was left there by the 
last maintenance crew that worked on her. Nick looked back toward the
massive station, and realized that Charlie was probably right.
He had asked Charlie why the shuttles and all the other equipment out
there stayed relatively where it was as the station's orbit decayed. The
answer Charlie gave now made more sense. He just said, "gravity."
The mass of the station gave it a gravitational influence of its own, out
here where it was. Sure, some of the stuff was tethered to the station, 
but a lot of it was not, and it just came along for the ride.

The big doors were open. They usually were left that way for keeping the
bird cool. As they entered the huge cargo bay, Tagalong was following
close behind. One of the technicians had given it that name when it was
first used to monitor the workers. Right now, Nick thought it better than
calling it, "Charlie Jr.", or some such obvious thing. He thought it best to
try to maintain something of an atmosphere of trust, at least doing it on 
the surface. No one was really sure they had done anything that was
blatantly suspicious or harmful yet. Benefit of the doubt, and all that.

They got inside, checked all the pressures, and found it all good, even 
after all this time. They waited in their suits for awhile, just in case. 

Charlie started Tagalong on the job of doing an inventory of the cargo bay.
It was mostly to decide what to keep, and what to dump.

                                                 22

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"Uh-Oh!"
Charlie's comment came over the comlink. Obviously, Tagalong had found 
something unexpected.
"What is it?" Nick asked.
"Just go on with your checkout list, but before you leave, look on the port
side aft below the blue and white containers."

As they checked out the conditions inside, the two were pleased to find
that, even after all of the downtime, all of the essential equipment seemed
to be in working order. They spent the rest of the day double-checking all
the systems. It was a far cry from working on it at the cape with all of its
equipment and conveniences, but they felt they did an adequate job of it.
One serious problem was found. No fuel. At least, not enough to get them
where they wanted to go. Charlie asked Nick if he had paid up his AAA
membership. Nick said he didn't think they made service calls this far out.
Charlie figured they could transfer enough from the other shuttle, or from
one of the tanks in the storage dump. He set Tagalong to working on it.
They buttoned up the shuttle when they were done, and Nick went aft to 
see what Charlie's watchdog had found.

It was the Chaplain. At least what was left of him. He was really a mess.
Charlie said it was better to just leave him there for now. He would have the
robot put him in a canister later. "Decent burial, and all that.", he said. At
least part of the mystery was solved, Nick thought.

Except for the discovery in the cargo bay, everyone seemed to feel better.
They ate and slept better. Nick and Charlie didn't say much about it, but
Charlie had Mary set more security in their quarters and the surrounding
corridors. After what Nick had seen, it seemed like a very good idea.


                                                23

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