"It is on now," Roger Fergusson informed Jean over the phone, "if you want to watch, that is," he said.
"It's ok dad, I do want to watch it, give me a sec and I'll set it to record." Picking up the phone again, she asked "Any news from Mary?"
"Not for a couple of days," he replied.
Jean's sister Mary, now a Marine Infantry Lieutenant, and with her unit having rotated into the Ready Reaction Force, was on stand-by for active duty deployment at any time. Needless to say, calls home from Mary were intermittent at best and in times of international tension, non-existent.
"How are you dad, Jean asked kindly, thinking the interview may have opened old wounds.
"Some days are still bad," he replied "I do so miss your mother, but maybe in the light of what is coming, she may be one of the lucky ones."
"Maybe," Jean conceded "but I miss her terribly as well, I bet she could have stopped Mary from enlisting."
"I doubt it, Mary and Elle were a lot alike, especially with their stubbornness," Rodge said. "The confrontation would have been something though," he chuckled. "Look, you don't have to watch, I didn't let anything out. She trotted out the same old questions, followed by a poorly disguised attempt to make me cry," Rodge told her.
"Media jerks," Jean spat out.
"Well they are just pandering to the masses," her dad responded "I suppose we shouldn't blame them too much."
"I fucking hate them," Said Jean with uncharacteristic venom "I hope we don't save any of them."
"Well on that note, I'll say good night and talk to you soon," said Rodge and after a few more 'goodnights' Jean reluctantly hung up.
She made herself a scotch and settled into the recliner to watch her father be interviewed by the well known English chat show host, Susan Parkinson. The interviewer introduced Rodge to her audience as Professor Fergusson, Rodge let it slip by unchallenged.
Jean muttered angrily at the TV, "Doctor! it's Doctor Fergusson, same as me, bitch."
The interviewer then asked some basic questions about Rodge's work, leading up to his current publication. Rodge and his team had proved that gravitational waves could, not only identify binary black holes, but could also theoretically be used to predict if a binary star system was about to go nova. This work had earned Rodge a Nobel prize nomination. Rodge explained that while it was flattering to be nominated, at the rate of Nobel prize awards, even if he did win, it would most likely be posthumous so he wouldn't know the outcome anyway.
The interviewer then brought up the subject of Elle's untimely death.
"It has been almost five years since your beloved wife Elle, was killed by a drug affected trauma patient, you were married for twenty-five years, how have you and your daughters coped?"
"Well, we all still miss her terribly," Rodge answered "it was a shock when it happened and the pain doesn't go away, we just concentrate on our work and deal with it."
"How did you feel when the judge handed down the death sentence?" she asked.
"Well, to be honest, at the time I was glad, but since then, I don't believe it accomplished anything. He has languished on death row for the last five years anyway, and time has attenuated the hunger for revenge. I really don't care either way to speak frankly, he is a nobody and his life is meaningless."
"No, let the fuck rot in solitary until he burns with the rest of us," muttered Jean as she walked back to the lounge with another drink.
Susan now introduced his association with the Axell Corp, Mars research.
YOU ARE READING
Out of the Fire
Science FictionWhat would you do if you discovered the end of the world was really nigh? Which way out would you take if you were very wealthy and discovered there were two possible paths to avoiding the catastrophe? Would you choose a dangerous jump to the futur...
