"Ooo! Boy, do you look good today!" was how Sheila greeted Osmo when he opened the door of his rooms at Hotel Hope.
He kissed her cheek. "I look good every day. But today I am wearing my Sunday best out of respect for my mother."
"If she can see you when we visit her memorial, she'll be very happy to see how handsome you turned out to be."
He turned back into the room. "Oh, I almost forgot this!" He showed her his small camera. "I want to show my father pics of the place... and, of course, also how good I look today, like I do every other day!"
The two of them enjoyed each other's company on the way. Osmo drove Sheila's truck. Osmo hadn't asked Albert or Jane to join them. Not that he didn't like their company. He valued their friendship. This, however, was such an intimate event for him. He preferred to visit the memorial with only Sheila.
Osmo related to her how Albert had told him he decided to stay on Hope, so he was going to look for a place to move into, rather than continuing to let Gov. Bright foot the bill for his rooms at Hope Hotel. Osmo said Albert had tried to explain how the greatness of Jesus motivated him. Osmo didn't understand at first, but now, since Gov. Bright offered him a position with his security team, he told Sheila he thought he was beginning to comprehend Osmo's excitement of being inspired by someone who was great.
"Your uncle is a great man, too, Sheila-"
"I know. I am always the one who tells you that."
"Yes. And it is really true. I think I will like working for him. Between you and him, I can see that there's more to life than just partying. I see sometimes being responsible can be a good thing. I used to think it was stupid. Look what it got my mom! I loved to live an undisciplined life, doing pretty much what I liked. I suspect it kept me from thinking about my mother's tragedy. I was not willing to grow up and face the facts of life, although I knew one day I must. That day is today. Today, all that's behind me."
"It's nice to hear you talk like that, with maturity," she told him. "I, also, find myself less inclined to enjoy a good party and to heck with everything and everybody else. Mind you, I never quite mastered that like you did, but I, unfortunately, had my bad moments, also. With you, I am expecting better things now. You do this to me, Osmo. Honestly, I don't need that wild living anymore- Maybe once in awhile, I guess. Your company goes a long way to keeping me content. Content in a way my uncle's care never could."
Osmo hunted for a decent parking spot. Many tourists came here to the memorial. The site's guide was giving a lecture in the middle of the plaza. Remnants of the destroyed space station, sealed in preservation cubes, were placed in a circle in the center of the plaza. Miss Rubble the tour guide stood in the midst of the blocks. And several other blocks dotted the landscape of the park. Past the plaza a beautiful lawn full of shrubs and flowers stretched far and wide.
Miss Rubble recited the history behind the ruins of the smashed space station. She tried to keep the story fresh, although she gave the same speech every day, ten times a day, six and a half days a week.
All eyes focused on Miss Rubble and the pieces of the wreck. Nobody noticed Osmo, nor realized his kinship with the one this place honored- Hope Martin.
Miss Rubble said:
"More than a dozen years ago, Earth experienced one of its hardest times. Most of you here today can remember all that. Energy shortages. Food shortages. Money shortages. Land shortages. These shortages brought out the worst in our homeworld's nations. Each country tried to acquire at least enough for an adequate supply for its own population. Territorial disputes quickly escalated into wars. Things looked dire.
"On an international space station, the Peace Lab, as it was called, a team of scientists, which included Hope Martin, worked tirelessly to find solutions. Some of the experiments conducted were deemed too controversial and dangerous to conduct on Earth, such as creating new hybrids of plants and animals that, if they got loose on the ground, might contaminate and foul the flora and fauna on Earth. Dr. Martin's crew hoped to find a new source of energy, with the prayer that if they did, it might relieve some of the tensions on the world that caused so much pressure of demand for a lacking supply of energy. They wanted to come up with some substitute energy before a massive world-wide war exploded over the supplies. If anything, however, went wrong with those experiments conducted aboard the space station way out in the vacuum of space, the world would be safe from a catastrophe. Only the space station and its inhabitants were in danger- so they supposed.
"One such test, to tap the potential energy inherent in the very nature of how our universe exists, produced an unforeseen by-product- a small anomaly, a black hole, formed within the lab of the space station. Quickly, in mere seconds, it grew and grew and grew! Chaotic and unstable, it readied to open into a wormhole, and then-
"Mrs. Martin gave the order to abandon the Peace Lab. All the other technicians protested, because Mrs. Martin planned to stay behind. She assured them that she would follow right after them, so leave an escape pod for her, but first she had to move the space station as far from the Earth as possible in as short a time as possible. She calculated the wormhole would, in a matter of less than an hour, grow so big it would swallow the world. If she could move it far enough out of range from Earth and the moon, it might not have enough to feed it, and it might stop expanding and instead stabilize at a set size. And Earth might be saved.
"Trying an unheard of scheme, using some of the equipment from another experiment, she managed to trap the anomaly temporarily in the lab in a gravity bubble. She also managed to coax the navigation system to budge the space station out of its orbit, away from Earth. She somehow estimated she had just enough time. Or she just prayed and hoped she did. No one knows for sure.
"Her estimates turned out to be correct- The gravity trap slowed its growth enough for her to move it via the space station, but then it finally fed on the gravity trap itself, and, in another spurt, expanded again, breaching the hull of the Peace Lab and sucking in the space station itself, into the opening wormhole, breaking it to pieces. Poor, heroic Dr. Martin had no time to escape, only time to turn on the SOS beacon. With nothing else to feed on, the anomaly stabilized, and its other end opened into this galaxy.
"She gave her life to save Earth.
"The SOS beacon continued to broadcast throughout the entire ordeal, its signal traveling through the wormhole and Earth picking it up. But they received no personal transmissions from Mrs. Martin, unfortunately. They didn't know if she was alive or not.
"A few probes were sent into the wormhole, but before any conclusions could be reached about how safe it was on this side of the space tunnel, a daring rescue squad embarked on a journey to find out what had happened to the brave heroine. They boarded a rocket and headed into space, setting their bearing to the wormhole far above the planet. Without hesitation, they ventured into the wormhole and followed the distress beacon all the way to the other side, to our small but wonderful little planet here.
"It didn't take long for them to locate the smashed space station, following the signal. It led the rescuers to this very spot. Sadly, very sadly, they could not find Mrs. Martin. Not a trace. Undoubtedly her body had disintegrated upon impact. They also discovered thriving, growing plants around the crash site and about this globe, some being the product of tested accellerants that were to promote rapid growth. Not only that, several escaped groups of hybrid animals had managed to survive the crashlanding and also prowled the new world. The rescue team excitedly realized that this place could become habitable, and if it could be made into a place where humans can live, then that would take some of the pressures off the people of Earth for more living space. And so came the idea of colonizing this planet.
"Most of the scientists from the Peace Lab had survived the disaster in life pods and reached Earth, thanks to the courage of Hope Martin. To honor her sacrifice, Mr. Gunther Martin began a project to develop this world, and he named it after his lost wife. This is her crash site. It became a special place on our world
. Many of the original plants that had sprung up were cultivated into the beautiful gardens you see at this memorial. And over time, Sparkle City sprang up also around the site. But this land where we stand, this right from the start was marked as land for honoring Mrs. Martin.
"Early pioneers engineered a more terrestrial-like environment, and over the years have expanded the better livable zones. When explorers discovered this world is so full of fuel ore, and that the ore could save Earth from further energy shortages, then it was like a euphoria broke out on Earth. This find helped to promote international co-operation and goodwill on massive scales all over again."
After the lecture, the tourists moved on, splitting into small groups, admiring the landscaping, the park buildings such as the chic restaurant, the gardens. Osmo stayed in the plaza, staring at the preserved wreckage of the space station. It had been too scattered to find all the remains, but enough of it had been found right here, along with the distress beacon. This, then, was his mother's crash site.
Sheila silently reached down and took his hand. He looked over at her. "Do you think this world and its fuel ore is the reason the countries on Earth started to co-operate with each other again, because of less shortages and things like that?"
"From what I gather, the threat level for major wars has dropped since then, making the world-governance of Earth more of a reality. What are your thoughts on the matter, Osmo?"
"Albert and Jane suspect that for the majority of those who were our leaders on Earth, it was often about power, about who has the most power, who stayed in control, to run the Earth the way each thought best. The shortages are just an excuse to try to grab more power, only most of the people don't even realize it." After a moment, Osmo added, "I don't know what I think about it. I think Al thinks too much."
"Well, if he's correct, at least now with the discovery of the fuel ore, they have one less excuse to wage a war, I suppose." She kissed him and he spouted no more philosophy.
Lost Camera