The Sam Gunn Omnibus

Armstrong Spaceport

“Yeah, i worked for Sam for several years back in the old days,” said Larry Karsh.

He was a lean, lanky, long-limbed man with the kind of baby face that would keep him looking youthful into his seventies, Jade thought. She had just barely arrived at the spaceport in time to meet him as he disembarked from the shuttle from habitat Jefferson.

“I’m on my way to the construction base on Mercury,” he’d told her. “Yamagata Corporation’s building a set of solar power satellites there, y’know.”

Jade maneuvered him to the tiny bar set between terminal gates and offered him a drink on Solar News’s expense. He smiled gratefully and asked for orange juice. Selene’s citrus groves were famous off-Earth. Jade had South Pole water.

“Y’know, in a way, Sam was a big factor in my marriage,” Karsh said as he sipped his drink. “But my wife and I could never forgive him for kidnapping our baby. That ended it between Sam and me, for good.”

“Kidnapped your baby?” Jade asked, shocked.

“Oh, T.J.’s none the worse for the experience. He was still in diapers when it happened. Now he’s heading up the Ecological Protection Service on Mars, making sure that the tourists don’t do any harm to the Martian environment so the scientists can keep on studying the life forms in the rocks. He’s a bright young man, my son is.

“Y’know, the power we generate from those sunsats in Mercury orbit will be beamed to the Mars stations. We’ll be providing electrical power for most of the inner solar system, how about that? And we’ll still have plenty left over to power the sailships out to Alpha Centauri and Lalande 21185.”

Jade made approving noises, then asked, “But about Sam … ?”

“Sam? I kinda miss him, sure. But don’t let my wife hear that! She’d just as soon boil Sam in molten sulfur, even after all these years.”

“I can understand that, I guess.”

“Well sure, Sam felt pretty bad about what happened. Or so he said. He even sent me a long letter explaining his side of it. Not a written letter, Sam never liked to commit very much to writing. It’s an audio disk, from his diary.”

“Sam kept a diary?”

“He sure did. Like a running log of everything he did. No, I haven’t the faintest idea of where he stored it. Probably carried it with him wherever he went, knowing Sam. Editing it every day, most likely, changing it to suit his mood or the needs of the moment, y’know.

“The only part of the diary I’ve got is the bit he sent me, which deals about the time he kidnapped my son.”

Her insides trembling with anticipation, Jade murmured, “You wouldn’t have it with you, by any chance?”

“Yeah, sure, I’ve got it here in my stuff someplace. Always carry it with me. Figured it might be a valuable historical document some day. Wanna hear it?”

It took all Jade’s energy to keep from grabbing Karsh’s carry-bag off his shoulder and tearing through it.