The Agent's Daughter by Ron Corriveau

Evan could feel that the
SSC was away and falling. It tumbled a bit at first, but the fins
attached to the sides aligned it so that it assumed a straight path
downward.
    “ How are you doing, Evan?”
the voice in his earpiece said. This time it was
Shirley.
    “ I’m doing okay, but I
have this weird sensation that I am falling,” Evan said.
    Shirley smiled, “You are about three minutes
to parachute deployment. Is there anything else to report?”
    “ Well, yeah,” Evan said.
“You know that high pitched whistling sound they use in cartoons
when something is falling. This thing makes that noise.”
    “ I will make a note of
that for the tools group,” Shirley said as she pretended to write
it down, “Get… rid… of… cartoon… whistling… noise.”
    Two more minutes passed. David called out
the altitude every five thousand feet.
    “ Okay Evan, you are at ten
thousand feet,” David said. “One minute until parachute
deployment.”
    “ Okay. Standing by,” Evan
said. He was focused now.
    One more minute passed. “Ten seconds to
deployment … Five. Four. Three. Two. One… Pull!”
    Evan could hear the parachute blast through
the cone at the top of the SSC. There were a few seconds of silence
as the chute unfurled. Then there was a loud thump as it popped
open. The falling sensation stopped, and Evan was under a full
canopy.
    “ The canopy is open,” Evan
said. “Fall rate has declined.”
    “ Copy that,” David said.
“I have the rate of descent steady at seventeen feet per second.
Prepare for SSC ejection. Ten seconds. Good luck, Evan. On my mark.
Five, four, three, two, one. Release!”
    Suddenly, the bolts that held the eight
pieces of the SSC together all disengaged at once. At the same
time, a small charge attached to the middle of each of the eight
panels exploded, so the panels were blown free of Evan and the
glider. He was outside now. It was cold, and the only sound was the
wind hitting the unassembled glider above him. After a quick check
of the parachute to verify that it did not sustain any damage, he
leaned forward and the glider snapped into a horizontal position
with him dangling below.
    He had another minute or so before the
glider began the automatic assembly process, so he spent some time
adjusting the focus of the camera. It was a clear, moonless night.
Evan could see the reactor base below and in front of him. It was
the only thing illuminated for miles in any direction. He zoomed
the camera in on the reactor building. It was lit up from all sides
with floodlights attached to the ground. Even at his altitude, he
could make out the details of the roof of the building.
    The silence was soon pierced by the sound of
gears turning. It was the glider assembling itself. Slowly the
long, straight structure above him sprouted into a V-shape. The
fabric of the wings fluttered in the wind as the wings were
unfurled, but fluttered less as the wings grew wider. When the
wings got to their full extension and the glider was assembled,
there was a loud clank as a locking mechanism at the apex of the
glider fell into place. The assembly was complete, and he was ready
to pull the release for the parachute and begin his flight.
    Evan reached for the release above him, but
then he paused. Since the glider had finished assembling, there
should be only the sound of the wind, but there was still a faint
grinding noise. He looked around for the source of the noise and
then he saw it. It was coming from the gears that had turned while
the glider was being unfurled. They had not shut off when the
glider assembly was complete. Evan had no way of stopping them. He
watched helpless as the gears continued to try to unfurl the wings
even further past their final position.
    And then there was a loud snap.
    It was the locking mechanism. It no longer
could handle the stress of the gears trying to hyper-extend the
wings. With no support at the apex of the glider, the sides drooped
down and enveloped Evan in