The Last Train to Beldor V

To Susi, the world was full of wonders big and small. She found everything from the smallest creature to the largest ocean fascinating. The one thing she loved most of all were the long walks with her father, Captain Jon Velas of Automated Train Systems. Her father told her stories of traveling the stars as an Engineer on the ATS Jickett. He would talk about his work as the Vice-Captain of the ATS Pentoplaz, where he helped stop the riots on Shalan II. The one thing that he kept from her was the thing she always wanted most.

“Dad, why did the trains stop coming to Beldor?”

Inevitably he would repeat his rote answer, “Honey, you are just going to wait until you get older to here that one.”

Then one day, a small probe landed on their front lawn. Susi saw it from her window on the second floor and rushed down the stairs, but her father got there first. He opened the probe and found a note inside. He read the note in silence before walking back into the house, ignoring Susi. He walked deadpan, his jaw locked, into the kitchen.

“Oh, Jon, I just...” she turned around to look at him, “Oh my stars... A note?”

She picked it up, read it, reread it, and started to cry. Jon hugged his wife, “Its all right, dear, everything will be fine. Iâ€â ...