Story:Unknown Aspirations/Test

"Amazing grace, how sweet thy sound."

The words echoed about the cathedral, around the hundreds that had come to attend the day's service, bouncing off of the ancient stone walls and up into the vaulted ceiling. With a note of finality, the speaker standing at the pulpit closed the book he had been reading from and took his seat, which was the cue for the organ to begin playing; the enormous amalgamation of pipes beginning to bellow the melancholic melody as it too rose towards the ceiling. No one rose from their seats, seemingly glued to the pews. The haunting music gave a perfect opportunity to think back on the events of the last few days. The individual funerals would be spaced out across the coming week, but for now, it was about the moment. This single, solitary moment in which an entire nation, either gathered there in the cathedral or watching the live feed of the service being broadcast at home huddled in front of televisions or computers, were united as one in remembrance and reflection.

It marked the end of an era before it had even gotten off the ground.

In the weeks following the crash of the space shuttle Conqueror, the committee that had formed to investigate the accident, after extensive research into the cause of the tragedy and the needs of a space program in the developing world, came to the difficult conclusion to put the space program on permanent hiatus, a decision which the president signed off on. "It would not be prudent at this juncture to continue with this endeavor." It was announced. The dream was dead, gone in an instant of flying shrapnel and exploding fuel.

In a lonely one-room apartment somewhere within the nation, a red-headed woman laid in a sobbing heap on her bed as the president's decision flashed across the screen on the evening news.