Death, Where Is Thy Sting?, epilogue/ author's comment

When the shuttlecraft was found three days later, quite by accident, and brought into Starbase 10, the portmaster and the chief medical officer didn’t expect to find its occupants alive, nor did they. When the craft had been warmed to ambient temperature in the docking bay and its batteries recharged enough to open the door, the two men stepped into the cold, dark interior. Here they found the frozen bodies of Lt. Cmdr. Daniel Hendrickson, late of the POTEMKIN, and T’Krrel of Vulcan, who was to have been the new field representative in the base offices of the huge trading firm of Thzverit. The expressions on their still faces seemed to indicate that death had been peaceful. After a long moment of silent contemplation, the portmaster cocked an eyebrow and nodded slightly, murmuring, “Hmmm. I’d such like to see what our resident Vulcan theologian has to say about this. . .”


(Author’s note: INTERPHASE readers may recall the Connie Faddis is planning an article on why we enjoy writing ‘get somebody’ stories. This stems from her many letters of response to one particular interpretation printed in INTERPHASE #1, namely “Dying Inside.” Personally, I hated it. That’s why I wrote this story, partly to purge myself of the distressing emotions aroused by the interpretation, and partly to show that there is another way to handle the continual need for catharsis we as paradoxical creatures must satisfy. Which of the two ways is the better I leave to you to decide. TH)