Passage — Thorby Rudbek

Passage: Citadel �" a forgotten inheritance �" Obsidian-black, a monument no longer. One hundred and forty feet long, thirty feet high, new views, new perspectives. Earth… gas giants, a barren world, a diminished star, long journeys to outposts and frontiers. Looking for the builders, two passengers, and ‘Tutor'. A pale wisp of a girl, lonely no longer. A new kind of schooling. The ultimate ‘mobile home'. A will to survive, the loss of hope, the sparing of the enemy, the discovery of a new friend, and a relative, at last. The lone survivor, now the protector of… the girl. Grey mists and premonitions. Uncovered skills to learn, to repair, to kill and to spare, a beginning of leadership, shouldering responsibilities. A physicist and his wife, their industrialist friend, an unplanned period in Canada. Extreme multiculturalism. A pilot, a single-seat jet, an incredible rescue and resulting incarceration, an ultimatum �" unbelievers, messengers misunderstood, and unappreciated. A hand-held laser and a crumbling hangar floor. Floating in an electric chair. Defence against the impending attack. Discoveries in the mists at Niagara, in Soho, London and in the extremes of a winter snowstorm. An isolated series of structures on a cold and barren planet, four occupants, one untried escape route. Mobilizing the immobile to cross hundreds of millions of miles of unforgiving vacuum. Jailor no longer, slave �" never again. Lost lives, limbs and lasers. One ‘Controller', a return to slow-engulfing disaster, belaying delaying the attack, a push for the ultimate relocation. An air force fighter jet fished from the waters off the coast of Maine, close to an empty, cliff-top excavation. A new flyer, a sub reactor, an unfortunate cat, fickle funding and bureaucratic delays. American beryllium, Eliminators, and a new crater in Nevada, an unprovable explanation, preferable to the truth. Time running out. Collecting new items: obsidian fragments and a figurine in miniature, one hand-made ring and many, many Macrals. A new kind of union. Respite, despite near enemies. Friends under false pretences. An aunt enlightened, a warrior commander on hold.