The Fila Epiphany
Chapter One
FROM OUT OF A CLEAR blue sky the shuttle descended. A glint of sunlight on its metal skin was the first sign, then the vessel itself appeared. Snub-nosed, wedge-winged, it swooped down from the upper atmosphere gracefully.
Then it blew apart.
A fireball split the hull into flaming pieces and shattered the wings. A heartbeat later the deafening explosion arrived. Shattered wreckage shot out across the sky at crazy angles, spinning, whirling, and finally falling like fiery hailstones. Screams of those watching mixed with the thuds and clanks of smoking fragments hitting the ground.
Cariad would never forget the first time she saw the vid of the shuttle explosion, which had arrived on her interface screen only a minute after it happened. Horror and dismay ha
