“Don't worry, Corporal. The Major is doing fine, just fine. He's safe and sound in there so you just let him be.”
Then she turned and walked briskly down the corridor and around the corner and was gone.
Above the hospital, above Cape Canaveral and the shrouding clouds, high above the atmosphere the sun shone as it always did. The solar storms raged across its surface and radiated their energy into space. Light streamed from the solar disc, light and radiation spread profligate in all directions. A small portion fell on the Earth, warmed it, made it habitable to man.
Ceaselessly, timelessly, the sun shone. One day, soon, another gleaming speck would soar through the thin atmosphere of Earth and into space, where it would spread its silvery net to capture more of that abundant energy before it disappeared in the eternal interstellar night.
Then — yet — another — spark —. -. -. - And — another — . -. -.