Ad Astra

A mysterious explosion in China, Oksana is kidnapped, and SETI receives a cryptic distress call from deep space. Mike and the crew discover that not only is the speed of light not a limit to Vesna's capabilities, but they have cousins in trouble across the cosmos.

"I can't believe it's been ten years already," Lana said to Mike as she nuzzled against him on the couch.

"I know. And you don't look a day older than when I met you," he replied with a grin.

"You know what caused that!" Lana said as Mike skillfully dodged the elbow that he instinctively knew she was aiming straight for his ribcage.

"You know what I mean," she continued sternly while Mike moved back in closer. "You take a girl out to Mars on a first date and then back into your history to propose…now we are an old married couple and what do we do? We sit here in Atlanta or fly back to Moscow. I do the news and weather and you make power plants and count your money. Each day is becoming the same."

"We could always talk Carol and Misha into having a baby…"

"You bite your tongue! They're too young!"

"Too young?" Mike laughed. "Mikhail is twenty-nine and a Major in your Air Force. He's picked up a couple of degrees and Carol's already been a full professor at Georgia Tech for over six years. You were only twenty when you had him."

Lana stuck her tongue out. "They're still too young. Now that all of us will live several hundred years, they can wait until they're in their hundreds."

Mike laughed and leaned over and brushed back her long, dark hair to nibble her neck just under the ear. "What do you suggest? We could always go to Six Flags…"

Mike was ready for an elbow, but he wasn't expecting the back of Lana's hand that whacked him on the shoulder.

"You let my son drive us several million miles an hour in your spaceship and you think I'm going to be bribed with a roller coaster?"

Mike nursed his shoulder. "Maybe you're right. I'm even doing my project to siphon methane from Neptune remotely. It has gotten kind of dull." Mike turned and looked at her slyly. "I know how you can make things livelier."

"Please," Lana said coyly, pushing at him slightly. "I'm a proper married woman."

Mike grinned. "I know. That's what makes you so irresistible!" He leaned over and nibbled her neck again, this time beneath the chin.

"I'm serious," Lana said as she pulled away slightly and pouted. "Sharon and I still do our reports. We both will be on CNN tomorrow and the Weather Channel on Thursday. Next week I have a report to do at NTV Moscow. It's all becoming the same. Even Sharon tells me that she's bored."

"Well, if you're already bored after only ten years of wedded bliss, what are you going to be like in a hundred?"

Mike lunged from the couch to avoid the throw pillow that sailed for his head.