Black PowderApril, A.D. 2017: Star Hector Space Station.
Tom Leong, a seventeen-year-old high school junior, slumped back in his chair, staring at the English paper he had just received. On the side wall of the classroom, a large video screen continuously showed the view of Earth, which slowly changed as Star Hector orbited the planet. Even though Tom's family had lived here all of his life, he usually found the view distracting, but not today. Right now, everything reminded him of his father.
The elder Tom Leong had been killed in a shuttle accident flying from here to the Moon on business just a few days ago. The cause of the accident had been a computer error from Moonbase. The funeral had taken place yesterday at their family's Episcopalian church on Star Hector.
Worst of all, the f
