The Orion Protocol Read Online Free

species in the universe which God has created. To know and to be known. ‘To add our light to the sum of light.’ And to do that, we must reach for the stars.”
    Augie was interrupted by applause, but he raised a hand for quiet.
    “This is going to be a long journey, over many generations; something that is going to take time. Now I’d like everybody to please stand up and take a good look around you.”
    Waiting as they all stood up and looked self-consciously around, he could see their embarrassment at having the attention shifted to themselves.
    “Do you know what I see when I look around this room? I’m seeing the astronomers, the pilots, the principal investigators, the engineers, the planetary geologists and biologists; the young men and women who will make up the space science teams of the first half of the twenty-first century.”
    The kids couldn’t help but squirm, giggle a little, and whisper to oneanother. But Augie knew they were taking this to heart. The legendary Colonel Augie Blake was calling on them, asking them to join him in something big and exciting, something with unquestionable greatness to it.
    “You are the generation who will make possible mankind’s next giant leaps in an era that will be known as the true Golden Age of Space Exploration. You are the ones who will lead manned missions back to the Moon, and on to Mars. Even out to the moons of Jupiter, to Europa and beyond. And I have to say I envy you.”
    His eyes toured the pin-drop-silent room like the slow sweep of a lighthouse beam.
    “Yes, I envy you. Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo did well, but you will do better. It will be you and those of your generation who will take part in a great adventure full of discoveries that will alter the course of human experience, bring us together, and peacefully change our world in the best way possible, forever.”
    Augie then stood at attention and gave them a smart salute, as if addressing the first graduating class of some glorious U.S. Space Academy of the future.
    “Good luck,” he said. “And Godspeed.”
    It was a wow finish, one that few in the cheering group would soon forget.
    Catching Augie’s eye, his NASA driver waved emphatically and held up a cell phone. Mouthing something unintelligible, she then charged out the side door.
    But as Augie turned and began shaking hands with the camp counselors seated near the podium, a faint shadow crossed his face. Anyone noticing it might have thought he’d aged ten years in an instant and looked suddenly exhausted. It was not fatigue, however, but the effects of an irregular heartbeat, which he’d experienced before and which sometimes left him a little light-headed.
    This episode, though, was more than just arrhythmia: he felt a long bad moment of pain shooting down his arms, and a blurring sense of displacement in time. With a kind of amused abstraction, Augie found himself wondering if he was dying.
    And then, almost as quickly as it had happened, the worst was over and the pain passed. Swiping at the sheen of sweat now slicking his forehead, Augie took a look around, feeling just a little shaky.
    Fuck , he thought, not sure if he’d said it out loud.
    He could clearly see where he was: standing in the sun outside the Space Camp assembly building, signing autographs and shaking hands. He just couldn’t remember quite how he got there.
    Well, I’m not dead. If I was dead I’d be lying down.
    Looking down at the plastic ballpoint pen in his hand, Augie noticed the whoosh of the NASA logo as if for the first time, sensing some profound multilevel meaning beyond the overt graphic symbology. It was an odd sensation, mixed with a certain overall self-consciousness that was rather curious.
    But in spite of everything, he somehow seemed to be carrying on, interacting in a normal fashion with everyone around him.
    “Hey! What’s up? What’s your name, darlin’?”
    Augie chatted and joked, and watched himself perform at the same time;