Ben Bova - The Sam Gunn Omnibus

“And cheaper?” asked Jill.

Sam pursed his lips, then answered, “You’ve got to pay for the energy, honey. It takes a lot of energy to zap a mass even my size across a laboratory.”

“You blacked out half of Selene doing it.”

“So we’ll build big fusion power plants,” Jill said. “You could get rich, Sam.”

“With my looks and your brains,” he said to Jill, “the whole solar system is our oyster!”

Jill laughed and kissed him lightly.

“Okay,” Sam said, turning to Jade. “Does that clear up everything for you?”

Suddenly Jade’s throat felt dry, so tight she could hardly speak. “Almost,” she choked out.

“What else?” Sam asked.

Jade had to swallow hard before she could say, “I… Sam, I think you’re my father.”

For long moments the room was absolutely silent. Jill, sitting on Sam’s lap, stared at Jade. Sam, for once in his life, seemed dumbfounded. His hazel eyes were wide, his mouth hung open.

Jade stared at him. She couldn’t speak. She could hardly breathe.

“Your …” Sam gulped before he could say, “Your father?”

Jade nodded.

“Jean Margaux,” Sam said in a whisper. “That’s who your face reminded me of.”

Jill slid off Sam’s lap. “Maybe you two ought to talk this through by yourselves.”

Sam clutched at her. “No. Don’t go.”

Jade couldn’t fathom the expression on Sam’s face: Anger? Guilt? Fear?

“Jean and I had an affair after we came back from the Belt,” Sam muttered, remembering.

Jade found her voice at last, although it was barely above a whisper. “Rick Darling told me.”

“She tried to contact me after I left Selene,” Sam went on. “I never called her back.”

“She was my mother,” said Jade.

The beginnings of a crooked little smile snaked across Sam’s face. “You’ve got my red hair, all right.”

Jill spoke up. “We could do a DNA comparison. That’d prove it, one way or the other.”

Sam shook his head. “We don’t need that.” He slowly got to his feet. “Jade, I’m sorry it’s taken all these years for us to meet each other. I’m sorry that I haven’t been a real father to you.”

Jade rushed to him and, as Sam folded his arms around her, she felt for the first time in her life that she’d found her place in the universe. Tears filled her eyes, and she heard Sam snuffling, as well.

“By God,” Jill Meyers said, “you’ve got me crying, too.”

Thus it was that Sam Gunn and Senator/Justice Jill Meyers were married in Selene’s nondenominational chapel. It was not a grand wedding, not the enormous bash that Jill had once planned, so long ago. A simple, brief ceremony.

But Douglas Stavenger, Selene’s power behind the throne, gave the bride away. Spencer Johansen served as Best Man. Frederick Mohammed Malone came from his space habitat and stood beside Sam on legs newly made strong by stem cell therapy to serve as an usher. As did Larry Karsh, who flew to Selene from his mansion in Utah with his wife and son. Jane Avril Inconnu Johansen was Matron of Honor.

The small group gathered in the chapel’s pews included gangling Russell Christopher from New Chicago, Zoilo Hashimoto, and a pair of elderly women, twins, who smiled and cried at the same time through the entire ceremony.

The reception, back at the Selenite Hotel, was hosted by Garrett G. Garrison III. Jim Gradowski ate almost all the roast beef, while Monica Bianco nibbled daintily on caviar canapes. Champagne flowed. A good time was had by all.

When the moment came for the bridegroom to offer a toast, Sam stood on a chair and raised his champagne flute.

“For once in my life, I don’t know what to say,” he admitted.

The crowd hooted.

“Well, in the past week I’ve found a daughter and married the one woman in the solar system who’s willing to put up with me. I think I’m the luckiest guy on Earth.”

“We’re not on Earth, Sam!” shouted Spence Johansen, one arm tight around Jade’s shoulders.

“That’s right. I stand corrected.”

“Where’re you going on your honeymoon?” Melinda Karsh asked. Her teenaged T.J. stood between her and his father.

Jill looked surprised. “Honeymoon? We haven’t even thought about that.”

But Sam said, “You know, I’ve never been to Saturn. It’s supposed to be spectacular, with those rings and all.”

“There’s a big habitat out there,” said Professor Solomon Goodman, “with a scientific community of about ten thousand men and women.”

Sam looked at Jill. “How about it? Would you like to spend a month or three at Saturn?”

Jill nodded enthusiastically. “Sounds like fun.”

“Ten thousand men and women,” Sam mused. “I wonder what they do for entertainment?”

“Now Sam,” said Jill, “we’ll be going out there for a honeymoon, not for business.”

“Yeah, I know. But still…”

The

SAM GUNN

Omnibus

Featuring every story ever written about Sam Gunn, and then some.

BEN BOVA

A Tom Doherty Associates Book New York

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in these stories are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

THE SAM GUNN OMNIBUS

Copyright © 2007 by Ben Bova All rights reserved. A Tor Book

Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC 175 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10010

www.tor-forge.com

Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bova, Ben, 1932The Sam Gunn omnibus / Ben Bova. p. cm.

“A Tom Doherty Associates book.” ISBN-13: 978-0-7653-1620-2 ISBN-10: 0-7653-1620-X I. Title.

PS3552.084S25 2007 813’.54—dc22

2006033982

First Hardcover Edition: February 2007 First Trade Paperback Edition: April 2009

Printed in the United States of America

0987654321

an ebookman scan

COPYRIGHT ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Earlier versions of “The Supervisor’s Tale,” “Diamond Sam,” “Isolation Area,” “Vacuum Cleaner,” and “Space University” appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, copyright © 1983, 1984, 1988, 1989, and 1990 by Mercury Press, Inc.

An earlier version of “Einstein” appeared in Omni magazine, copyright © 1990 by Omni Publications International, Inc.

“Sam’s War” and “Nursery Sam” originally appeared in Analogy copyright © 1994 and 1995 by D

Dell Magazines.

“The Prudent Jurist” (as “Sam and the Prudent Jurist”) and “Acts of God” originally appeared in Science Fiction Age, copyright 1997 and 1995 by Sovereign Media.