pair of mortals.
"How sweet, my darling," she said with a smile. "But what of you, Captain? We haven't heard your own choice."
"I'm afraid I have grave limits on that part of my imagination," he answered seriously. "I can think of myself only as Gilgamesh, or the Wandering Jew. Always the same, never changing, walking through the world but unable to fully become a part of it."
"I believe I'd like that," Tony said. "Never changing, never aging, and never beyond repair, as it were. Watching the ages come and go, empires rise and fall, and great events as they occur. Yes, I might find that quite enticing."
"No, you wouldn't," the captain came back a bit sharply. "Suppose you had to do it without Anne Marie? Without anybody to share it with? Watching everyone you knew or liked grow old and sick and then die, watching as many horrors as great things and being unable to do more than bear witness to them? Always alone, without even anyone to talk about it with or share experiences with on an equal basis? Is that a blessing or the worst of curses? You tell me."
"Without Anne Marie? Hmmm . . . I think I see what you mean. But I would insist on Anne Marie as well!"
"I'm not so certain of that myself," she put in. "I mean, after centuries together I'd expect even the most loving of people to get rather sick of one another."
Both men were startled by her comment, Tony because he could not conceive of such a thing and the captain for far different reasons.
Was that ultimately what it was? Did I need her so much that I failed to realize that I could be a pretty boring and predictable stick-in-the-mud that might eventually drive anybody nuts? Could it be as simple as that?
"You might grow sick of me ?" Tony asked her, genuinely a little upset.
"Don't worry, darling, I'll give you a few thousand years or so," she answered playfully. She paused for a moment, sensing that her response had really bothered him. "Oh, come off it, Latin lover! It's just a silly game to pass the time!"
The captain turned and looked back toward the northeast. "Sorry I caused any problems. As Anne Marie said, it's just a ga— Holy smoke !"
Anne Marie suddenly looked up in the same direction and gasped. "Tony! The whole sky is lighting up! It's like the sun's about to rise!"
But it was thirteen minutes after two in the morning.
Rockfall: Rio
IN SPITE OF MANY PREDICTIONS TO THE CONTRARY, IT WAS quite clear to astronomers that as the meteor dug into the atmosphere, it was coming apart. Not enough to keep a large mass from striking fairly close to where they had predicted but enough so that pieces, some fairly large, would shower down along the route inland. This had been feared but was not completely unexpected.
It began while still well over the Atlantic, a brilliant, shining fireball that turned darkness into eerie twilight while providing a surprisingly multicolored display in its wake for those watching openmouthed on ships at sea and from monitoring aircraft. This caused a lot of attention but little concern; the ocean was vast and swallowed whole the splinters that managed to make it all the way to the surface.
As the meteor approached the continent, however, it was lower in the sky and slowing slightly, although its speed was still so great that observers on the ground saw the fireball flash past in the space of but a few seconds.
To the captain and Anne Marie, sitting atop the hill not many kilometers from Rio, it was an eerie, awesome sight nonetheless. The meteor approached from over the horizon, illuminating the eastern sky like the coming of dawn, slowly obliterating the stars, and overwhelming even the glow of the city lights. When it suddenly appeared, much lower on the horizon than they had expected, it was a miniature sun, a massive fireball that seemed several times the size of a full moon. Even the captain had to admit that he'd never in his incredibly long life seen anything quite like it before.
It came with blinding speed almost
"How sweet, my darling," she said with a smile. "But what of you, Captain? We haven't heard your own choice."
"I'm afraid I have grave limits on that part of my imagination," he answered seriously. "I can think of myself only as Gilgamesh, or the Wandering Jew. Always the same, never changing, walking through the world but unable to fully become a part of it."
"I believe I'd like that," Tony said. "Never changing, never aging, and never beyond repair, as it were. Watching the ages come and go, empires rise and fall, and great events as they occur. Yes, I might find that quite enticing."
"No, you wouldn't," the captain came back a bit sharply. "Suppose you had to do it without Anne Marie? Without anybody to share it with? Watching everyone you knew or liked grow old and sick and then die, watching as many horrors as great things and being unable to do more than bear witness to them? Always alone, without even anyone to talk about it with or share experiences with on an equal basis? Is that a blessing or the worst of curses? You tell me."
"Without Anne Marie? Hmmm . . . I think I see what you mean. But I would insist on Anne Marie as well!"
"I'm not so certain of that myself," she put in. "I mean, after centuries together I'd expect even the most loving of people to get rather sick of one another."
Both men were startled by her comment, Tony because he could not conceive of such a thing and the captain for far different reasons.
Was that ultimately what it was? Did I need her so much that I failed to realize that I could be a pretty boring and predictable stick-in-the-mud that might eventually drive anybody nuts? Could it be as simple as that?
"You might grow sick of me ?" Tony asked her, genuinely a little upset.
"Don't worry, darling, I'll give you a few thousand years or so," she answered playfully. She paused for a moment, sensing that her response had really bothered him. "Oh, come off it, Latin lover! It's just a silly game to pass the time!"
The captain turned and looked back toward the northeast. "Sorry I caused any problems. As Anne Marie said, it's just a ga— Holy smoke !"
Anne Marie suddenly looked up in the same direction and gasped. "Tony! The whole sky is lighting up! It's like the sun's about to rise!"
But it was thirteen minutes after two in the morning.
Rockfall: Rio
IN SPITE OF MANY PREDICTIONS TO THE CONTRARY, IT WAS quite clear to astronomers that as the meteor dug into the atmosphere, it was coming apart. Not enough to keep a large mass from striking fairly close to where they had predicted but enough so that pieces, some fairly large, would shower down along the route inland. This had been feared but was not completely unexpected.
It began while still well over the Atlantic, a brilliant, shining fireball that turned darkness into eerie twilight while providing a surprisingly multicolored display in its wake for those watching openmouthed on ships at sea and from monitoring aircraft. This caused a lot of attention but little concern; the ocean was vast and swallowed whole the splinters that managed to make it all the way to the surface.
As the meteor approached the continent, however, it was lower in the sky and slowing slightly, although its speed was still so great that observers on the ground saw the fireball flash past in the space of but a few seconds.
To the captain and Anne Marie, sitting atop the hill not many kilometers from Rio, it was an eerie, awesome sight nonetheless. The meteor approached from over the horizon, illuminating the eastern sky like the coming of dawn, slowly obliterating the stars, and overwhelming even the glow of the city lights. When it suddenly appeared, much lower on the horizon than they had expected, it was a miniature sun, a massive fireball that seemed several times the size of a full moon. Even the captain had to admit that he'd never in his incredibly long life seen anything quite like it before.
It came with blinding speed almost
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