Earthbound (The Reach, Book 1) (51 page)
Read Earthbound (The Reach, Book 1) Online
Authors: Mark R. Healy
Running wasn’t the solution. He need
ed to stay and make things
right
.
He wanted to do something that wasn’t just about
him
. He wanted to atone for the wrongdoings of the past.
In the same moment he realised something else. Mianda was gone. She was gone and she wasn’t coming back, and now there was nothing he could ever do to earn her love. But all was not lost.
There was still something he could do that would have at least earned her respect.
He turned back to Ursie, the passkey limp in his hand. He strode over to her, and then the passkey clattered on the concrete at her side. She gasped and looked up in surprise, the tracks of tears still wet on her cheeks.
“I don’t care what you do with that, Ursie. Take it if you want, or throw it away. I don’t need it anymore.”
Ursie regarded the golden passkey with disbeli
ef. She extended one hand halfway toward it, then stopped, as if she thought it might disappear in a cloud of smoke if she were to touch it. She glanced up again at Knile, but he made no reaction.
Finally she scooped up the key in her hand and got to her feet, and the man in the suit reacted immediately, opening his briefcase and taking out a black cube.
“Here, quickly,” he said in his deep voice. Urs
i
e stepped over to him and inserted the passkey into an aperture on the device. “Encode,” he ordered.
Ursie placed her thumb on the passkey’s indentation and the device swam with red and blue LEDs.
“Of course,” Knile said with a rueful grin. “You’re the Sponsor. You own the key to the encryption. You can put any name on there you want, any time you want.”
Ursie looked uncertainly over her shoulder at him, but there was no animosity in his voice. The loss of the passkey seemed to have purged him of his angst and his inner turmoil. A calmness
had come over Knile that was quite unlike anything she had seen before.
The process finished with a beep, and Ursie removed the passkey again. She ran her thumb across the indentation.
Ursie Meyer.
She smiled and let out another sob, but this time the tears running down her cheek were those of joy and relief. She turned to Knile to offer her gratitude, but he had already turned and was walking away into the gloom.
The railcar completed its start-up cycle and a klaxon sounded.
“We must go,” the man in the a
viators said. “Now.”
Ursie scurried over to the briefcase and threw a few of the nearby items back inside, then got to her feet and hugged it to her chest.
“Knile!” she called. Knile stopped and glanced over his shoulder at her, his face still calm and purposeful. “What are you going to do?”
His eyes dropped as he considered what to say. When he lifted them again his voice was filled with belief. With boldness.
“I’m going to leave Earth. But I’m not going to leave it alone.”
Ursie nodded and felt her cheeks flush. “I’m sorry for what I did to you, Knile. I know you hate me, and that you’ll never believe another word that comes out of my mouth, but that’s the truth. I wish I’d done things differently.”
“I don’t hate you, kid.” He smiled faintly. “How could I? You’re more like me than you could ever know.” He made a little upward motion with his chin. “Go. Your ride’s waiting for you.”
The doors of the elevator opened and Knile stepped inside. Ursie and the man in the suit had already made it to the railcar. Knile watched her insert the key into a slot beside one of the technicians, and a nearby capsule opened like the petals of a tulip sliding apart to welcome the morning sun.
Knile raised his face and saw the darkening heavens sprinkled with stars high above, the Wire a taut and silver thread that bisected
the sky. As the elevator doors eased shut the vista slipped from view, and Knile found himself alone inside the four walls of the compartment.
He breathed deeply and waited for the elevator to take him downward into the Reach once more.
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Author’s Note
Thanks for reading
EARTHBOUND
. I sincerely hope you enjoyed it!
I’ve wanted to write a novel about space elevators since reading Arthur C. Clarke’s
FOUNTAINS OF PARADISE
some fifteen years ago, a story that captivated my imagination like few have before or since. There was no apocalypse in Clarke’s novel, but I was intrigued by an end of the world scenario where everyone was struggling to squeeze their way through one last checkpoint, the final route off the planet. The problem was, I could never think up a plot worthy of such an idea.
When the basic plot finally came to me, things happened
fast
.
EARTHBOUND
was written in six weeks flat, which is not a bad rate for 110K words – at least by my standards. There’s a reason why that happened the way it did.
I absolutely loved writing this story.
Rather than using a post-apocalyptic world to explore the meaning of humanity as I did in
THE SILENT EARTH
series, I decided that I wanted
THE REACH
to be a fast-paced rollercoaster ride that was full of action – and perhaps even a bit of fun. I hope that’s what I achieved in
EARTHBOUND
.
THE REACH
series will continue with book two,
LANDFALL
. I hope you come along for the ride!
As a new author I'm endeavouring to bring in new readers. If you enjoyed
EARTHBOUND
, please write a review on Amazon, as this will help others find out about me.
All the best,
Mark
About the Author
Mark R. Healy is an author and musician from Brisbane, Australia. He lives with his wife Nic and children Elise and Hayden.
Mark’s Website:
markrhealy.com
Facebook:
http://facebook.com/hibernalband
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/author/markhealy
Mailing List:
http://eepurl.com/O2dhT
You can find more of Mark’s stories through his project ‘Hibernal’. This project features professional voice actors, original music and Mark’s own sci-fi stories to create a cross between audiobooks and movies. The result is an atmospheric, immersive and unique theatrical experience for the listener. This project is available to hear online at
http://hibernal.bandcamp.com
and can also be purchased through iTunes and Amazon. Just search for ‘Hibernal’.
Contact Mark by email: [email protected]
Acknowledgements
As I churn through this latest series of novels I’m writing faster than ever before and placing more strain on my small but very important support network. My apologies to the following people in advance for more of the same in the near future:
My partner Nic for the dozens of roles she plays in my writing every day. My alpha reader, my sounding board for frustrations and concerns, my artwork advisor, and just about everything else you can imagine.
Pete Turner for beta reading. Pete, your feedback is always on the money and these books are greatly improved by your input.
Hayden Wright for not only proofreading but for providing great feedback into the story as well.
My editor Eliza Dee at Clio.
Also thanks to Saul Caldwell, Mike Kershaw, Rohan Healy, Gayle Martin, and Jo Keiler.
And the final ‘thank you’ is for those who read this book, and who managed to make it as far as the Acknowledgements page! With all the books that are available out there, I appreciate you giving me a few hours of your time. See you again soon, I hope.
Mark R. Healy, May 31, 2015
Also by Mark R. Healy
THE SILENT EARTH SERIES
SHORT STORIES
Table of Contents