... card waiting for me at breakfast ...
Months of testing. Still nobody knows, but the rumors are running fast and heavy. Whole base preoccupied with the misty Phoenix Project. Secret construction hangar, security precautions to the point of absurdity....
... I'm it! ...
... it's faster-than-light drive, that's what Phoenix Project is. Faster-than-light. The big dream, the dream of the stars ...
Training. Slower through the two years of intensive training. This may be a critical phase. Two years, endless repetitive drill, drill practice drill drill drill.... Colin's forehead feels cool as he sits beside the bed. Perspiration. A glance at his watch shows him two hours since they began.
How did you take to this intensive training?
All right. It was all right. Dull, you know, but it was all right generally. After the first year it was pretty automatic. Conditioned response, I didn't have to think. If and when such and such happens, press this button, throw that switch. Automatic.
Automatic, Colin thought. That's why he came back then. Without volition, responding to given signals according to training.
... walking toward the ship. She's big and bulky, but we're friends by now. Now I'm climbing the ladder up to the lock ...
... listening to the count down ... two ... one ... fire! ...