A BK breakfast ache

Went to breakfast at Burger King today. Yep, a fast food english muffini with cheese, egg and sausage for $1, and a cup of coffee. Not the best thing to start the day with, but I indulge once a week for that price. I sit and eat and read and relax for 15 minutes before going onward to work.

I am reading "Fallen Angels" on my Kindle as I eat. I feel the tears swelling in my eyes and the ache in my heart as I read one particular passage.

The story is basically about the downfall of America/the world. It is set in post downfall times. The "greenies" have taken over and stopped technology and what they think is messing up the Earth. The Ice Age cometh because global warming doesn't hold it back. By stopping technology they have also stopped the thinking of new technology and science fiction is outlawed. Oh, fairies and magic and fantasy is still okay, but no real science in the stories is allowed.

Up in space is an American/Russian space station. Humans living in a confined environment and trying to survive. Two of them go out to cull some much needed nitrogen for air and their ship ends crashing on Earth.

Now, if you are a science fiction fan, you will love the book. The fen (as the fans are called) learn of the crash and go to rescue the spacemen/Angels before the "greenies" or the military can get to them. The book is about their travels and the other fans in the country that help them out along the way.

At one point in their travels they come to stop overnight in St. Louis. They are greeted at the Arch and taken into an enclave of fen that are also a medevil reenactment group. The reenactment group gets by because they are more 'fantasy' orientated.

The scene happens that evening when the Angels are telling their story. One of them talks about his trip up in space when he was 6 yr's old with his mom and dad. It was the last trip up.

The last flight. Doesn't that sound familiar. I think something connected in my brain then and started the ache.

He talks about when they were loading the ship, there was a riot starting. People wanting to stop it. People defending it. How could people want to stop these flights or this program. An older man said he was there and described the fight when they tried to break into Mission Control and how the ground crew gave lives to give time for the ship to get into space and to stop the precious controls from being destroyed.

I did cry a little at this. The space program was closed soon after and the space station was on its own.

Could this happen in America now? Maybe not. In the future? maybe not either, but to think that this story, a fiction could come true - it made me sad to think about it. A vision? A prophecy? just someone thinking the worst that could happen to our country and hoping for better.

Now, don't take this as the tone for the whole book. The story has a great feeling of hope and a show of comaradrie as the Angels travel thru the country getting help and support from groups along the way.

It was just a somber moment in the book and because of what has happened recently, an equally somber moment.