The Beacon: Hard Science Fiction by Brandon Morris (red white and royal blue hardcover TXT) 📕

On the other days, the quickest option was 14 hours or more on the road between Stockholm and Kiruna. He had several flight choices every day to Stockholm. But, there was still that long drive from the Swedish capital to Kiruna, along the Gulf of Bothnia on the Baltic Sea.

Surely there must be alternatives? He switched to the Finnish options. Airports were marked at Oulu and Rovaniemi. From Rovaniemi, it looked like four and a half hours of driving, but the only viable connection was on Saturday. Okay, then he’d have Sunday to acclimatize. He’d leave at 11:35 a.m. and arrive in Rovaniemi at 5:15 p.m. with a change in Helsinki. Then around five more hours by car. That sounded doable.

There seemed to be plenty of hotels around Kiruna. He booked the Reindeer Lodge because it was fairly close to Esrange, where the Swedish Space Agency’s launch center was located. The accommodations, in private wooden cabins, looked rustic. Franziska would like that. Should he call her and ask her to come along?

It was only 24 minutes or so from the lodge to the launch site. The weather forecast predicted a maximum temperature of minus five degrees. The roads looked rather narrow in the online route planner, so he booked a car with four-wheel drive, even though it was a bit more expensive.

Peter reached for the phone and typed a 0, then a 1, then a 7. He’d slowed down with each digit, and after the 2, he stopped and put the phone aside. He didn’t trust himself. What should he tell Franziska? Come with me to northern Sweden to watch me send my mother’s house into space? Maybe it was better for her to keep her distance from such a madman. He was beginning to think that he should turn himself in before he became a danger to others. It was not easy, being utterly convinced of something while knowing everyone would believe you were a nutcase.

No, not all of them. Not Thomas and not the researcher Holinger, even if she did not accept his thesis. He had data on which he based his theory, data which any interested person could measure. The problem was that they allowed for other interpretations as well. And if his theory was correct, the current cosmology would have to be overlooking a danger that was hard to imagine.

His computer made several pinging sounds, the booking confirmations for the flights, the hotel, and the car. Peter printed them out. Who knew if he’d have Internet access everywhere in the far north?

Then he got up and took a folder from the shelf. He had to prepare the lessons for tomorrow. Three more days of school.

March 26, 2026 – Passau

“Hi, Peter!”

It was Franziska. He’d hesitated for a long time to take the call, even though he longed to hear her voice.

“Hello, Franziska! I, um...”

“I just wanted to give you a quick sign of life before you reported me missing to the police.”

“That’s nice. I wouldn’t have... uh, I’m glad to hear your voice.”

Franziska was right. She’d announced at the end of February that she’d be spending some time in Greta’s apartment because her friend would be away anyway. A month had passed. He never ran into her at school, but he assumed that she was deliberately avoiding him. After all, she knew his schedule.

“I’m glad too, Peter. How are you?”

She was happy. That was good.

“Well, busy, you know how it is so close to Easter break. And how are you?”

“Quite well. It’s a bit lonely. Greta is still traveling with the director. Can you imagine? Yesterday she called from Hamburg, and tomorrow they’re going to Amsterdam.”

“With Greta, I can very much see that happening.”

“Yes, it suits her. I couldn’t. I miss my garden. Are you keeping up with watering the flowers? And are you making sure the blackberries don’t overgrow everything? Are the blackbirds breeding yet?”

“You could come and see for yourself.” Peter held his breath.

He had surprised himself. It rarely happened to him that his words were faster than his thoughts. But now these words had escaped his mouth.

“Hmm. I’d really like to sit in my deck chair again, look out over the fields, and have an Aperol Spritz to go with it.”

“That sounds good to me.”

“The forecast for the weekend is 20 degrees and sunny. What do you say I come by Saturday around noon?”

Peter swallowed and sat down. His ear was sweating, so he changed the phone to the other side. On Saturday...

“Peter?”

“There’s a little bit of a problem there,” he said.

“You’ve already gotten a replacement for me, and you can’t cancel on her so soon?”

“No! Please don’t take this the wrong way—”

“Oh well, when you start out like that... I thought you’d be pleased. I would have been pleased.”

“I’m looking forward to it, too. But the day before yesterday, I booked tickets to Rovaniemi.”

“What are you doing in Finland? I bet it’s still freezing there.”

“Actually, I want to go to northern Sweden, but it’s a shorter trip from Rovaniemi. On Monday, my satellite launches into space—my beacon. I’ve explained to you that the solar system is threatened.”

“That again? I thought you would have returned to your senses by now. I’m sorry I made such a stupid suggestion.”

“It wasn’t a silly suggestion after all. I would have liked you—”

“Don’t act like that. Your obsession still takes precedence over everything else.”

“You could come with me. I’ve booked a lodge in the middle of the Arctic wilderness. There are even reindeer there!”

“Yes, and lots of snow, I’m sure. I’m not going to sit alone in the lodge in sub-zero temperatures while you watch a rocket launch, when we have twenty degrees and spring here!”

“Gosh, Franziska, it’s not like that at all—”

“Don’t bother, Peter. I’ve got it all figured out. Do what you have to do. When are you leaving?”

“The plane leaves at eleven-thirty.”

“Good, then I’ll have the garden to myself by ten o’clock at the latest. Are you sure you