Mom used to tell me, “To be a good police officer, there are two things you have to do right.  One: you have to survive.  Two: be able to tell a good story.”

Coming from four generations of cops, she knew of what she spoke.  She had a strong sense of ethics, pride, loyalty, courage and morality.  All were traits she cultivated in me.  Strongest of all, though, was a feeling that you could make a difference in people’s lives. 

You might remember historical accounts about me.  It occurred about one-hundred years after the accidental discovery of the corona space drive, in the era you now call the “Outward Expansion”.  To those of us that lived back then, we just called it the “Expansion” – because we could hardly keep up.

Mankind was journeying to previously unheard of and unnamed destinations.  A modern space craft could get to Earth’s closest stars in a matter of days or weeks.  Expansion was, initially, the canvas of the very wealthy and of military craft of the Earth Alliance.  But technological advances brought a palette of relatively inexpensive and fast space crafts to the upper middle-class and medium-sized businesses.

I grew up in Metroplex City, in north Texas, watching my Mom dress at night for her patrol duties.  She often remarked that only professional scuba divers took more time to get ready for work.  Her equipment ritual was completed when she eased her StacGun into its polished leather holster.  I can still smell the scent of her leather boots, leather gloves, and faint perfume . . . I can close my eyes and remember the burning embers in her eyes:  full of purpose, confidence, and vitality.  Well . . .

What made the news accounts about me memorable is not that another Ranger was lost.  (No, those were dreary times for us, when several of my friends had fallen.)  It was the fact that I became missing.  Of course, you can ask your grandparents to recount what they recall.  Of course, you can obtain detailed news accounts from back then.  Of course, finally, all of those accounts end with my disappearance – without a trace.