by Aer-ki Jyr
It was Star Force procedure to bring up water from Earth whenever possible, in whatever large or small quantities they could squeeze onto the dropships in addition to their primary cargo or passengers. That water usually made its way to one of these larger cargo ships, then distributed throughout the Star Force orbital infrastructure.
The Jaguar was the largest starship fielded to date, and massed more than some of the small stations. It had been built in the primary shipyard, situated in geosynchronous orbit, along with its five sister ships, taking approximately one year each to assemble, though construction of their components had begun long before that at various orbital factories.
It carried a crew of more than 50 on a regular basis, and the disc width was equal to that of the training station’s discs, though this one was twice as thick and, as usual, was actually a pair rotating in opposite directions encased within an outer shell. Virtually all of the ship’s compartments, including the bridge, were located in the disc, with the zero gravity sections…which made up 85% of the ship’s interior…reserved for cargo transfer.
On the way back to the starport, Paul and the others got to visit the cargo bays and ‘explore’ a bit. Inside the cavernous six bays, each situated adjacent to one another in the long ‘tail’ of the starship, were hundreds of various sized crates, each attached to racks spanning the bay. Fortunately they were only half full, leaving lots of empty spots and making it the perfect place to play hide and seek during the 25 hour trip.
Paul and the others got to practice their zero gravity skills more than they had expected, thanks to an understanding captain, and organized their own obstacle courses in one of the bays, as well as several other challenges to keep themselves busy…including the long range jumps that they hadn’t been able to try out on the station.
Even the large training room there was shorter than the length of the bay, and though they had to avoid crates and support structures, Paul and the others found that they could, if they aimed precisely enough, launch off one wall and fly to the other just a little under 100 meters away.
Needless to say, the return trip proved much more entertaining than the ‘plane ride’ out on the smaller Cougar.
When they got back to the starport they had about an hour’s delay waiting for their dropship, so Paul pulled rank, so to speak, and got permission to observe part of the unloading process as the Jaguar transferred over crates to the starport.
Unlike the small docking arm that they’d used to board from the Sparrow, the Jaguar was attached to a much wider port via its own extendable docking pylon that attached directly to the inside of the starport’s shell rather than the docking arms emanating out from the zero gravity section in front of the cylinders. Most of the bulk cargo storage was located in the shell anyway, but even if it hadn’t been, the Jaguar was too large to squeeze into the primary docking ports without obscuring half of them.
Instead the giant ship situated itself next to the outer rim where the docking bay doors were retracted and extended a grapple arm sideways from its ‘tail’ segment, just ahead of its engines, which were sticking down below the starport with the disc section poking out above and the long tail connecting the two on the side so as to not block the other traffic coming in and out.
Once the grapple was attached and the small momentum differences between the ship and starport were nulled out mechanically, the Jaguar’s docking pylon extended and connected with the inside of the starport’s shell with an L-shaped attachment that got up and under the overhang so the actual docking port could still exist within the starport’s protective shell rather than being located on the armored exterior.
Paul watched from the starport’s side as some, but not all, of the crates were transferred over via mechanical arms attached to the walls of the large docking pylon. They motored their way along small tracks with the cargo in their grip, then very carefully exchanged the packages with the starport’s own cargo arms, which then carried the crates down to a processing station.
From there they were moved via sled to the appropriate warehouse compartments within the shell, some having to go all the way around the backside of the cylinders to get to their storage areas on the other side of the starport.
Paul took a ride with one of the workers on a sled back into the well lit but ‘dark’ areas of the starport where nobody else ever went, just to see what it was like. The sled moved on a track set into the ‘floor’ while the midsized crate was held down with a series of clamps. The worker stood on a raised platform with his feet in footholds as he drove the sled down the port side of the starport.
Paul stood beside him, hanging onto the rim of the control panel and his feet in a second set of footholds, amazed at how much cargo was being stored and transferred about and impressed with the overall size of Star Force’s operations in space. He’d known all along how ambitious they were…after all he’d been living in their largest construction project for the past half year…but given the fuel to weight issues of moving cargo and personnel up into space, he hadn’t realized it could be this busy.
Midway through his tour of the dark zones, he hopped ‘trains’ and hitchhiked a ride with a crate being taken into the starport’s interior for distribution. The tracks that ran the length of the floor, walls, and ceiling diverged into a short offshoot that led into the backside of the station where the cylinders were attached to a cargo distribution area.
The crate in question was taken off a sled and moved to a side chamber where it was opened and smaller packages, not quite crates but of a similar design, were removed and sent in groups through the rotational airlock and into the gravity zone of the starport. Paul followed along, seeing some containers being sent to the food prep area while a few others were taken up into the commercial zones. Both contained food, but Paul figured one was meant for the cafeteria while the others probably contained prepackaged snacks that would be made available for sale to the tourists constantly transiting through the commerce hub.
Paul eventually returned to the front end of the cylinders and the zero gravity section they’d first passed through on arrival almost two weeks before. Megan, Jason, and the others were sitting attached to three tables halfway up the amusement park-like reception area, waiting for their dropship to arrive. He joined them and watched the wall-screen view of the Earth and docking area, noting the large slice of the left side that was obscured by the docked Jaguar.
He didn’t have to wait too long before an attendant arrived to escort them inside their dropship…another Sparrow that, ironically, was bringing up the 3s for their training mission. They met and conversed with each other briefly, then went their separate ways. Paul and the others boarded the dropship and detached from the starport without delay and nudged away from the space station on thrusters alone.
Once they’d drifted out to a safe distance, the Sparrow flipped over, pointing its engines forward, and began a sharp descent burn, nulling out most of their orbital momentum and dropping them back down to Atlantis’s position with very little reentry friction, though it could have stood the heat of a full on reentry had it needed to.
Once down into the atmosphere a pair of hull panels retracted and the small jet engine that the Sparrow contained came online and flew the spaceplane back to Atlantis where it circled a few times before being given clearance to land on one of the massive runways. More hull panels on the underside of the Sparrow opened and the blocky landing gear extended, breaking up the otherwise smooth, polished chrome visage of the craft.
They touched down without incident, then taxied off the main runway, down a service offshoot, and over to a semi-active terminal, docking with a walkway extension.
Paul unstrapped and stood up, feeling real gravity for the first time in what felt like forever. It was different than centrifugal gravity in a way, cleaner somehow…or maybe that was just his imagination. Either way, grabbing his duffle and walking off of the dropship on sore legs, he was glad to be back home.
Paul
frowned to himself as he and the others made their way through the terminal, now free of any handlers, and headed back through the city to their training area and quarters. When had he started thinking of Atlantis as home? Home was supposed to be back in Indiana with his family.
He glanced to his left at Jack, then at Emily on his right, suppressing a smile. He wasn’t sure how it had happened, but it seemed that he had picked up a second family and a second home in recent days. That wasn’t something he’d expected to have happened, but now that it had, he was glad. It made him even more sure that his decision to join Star Force instead of going to college had been the right one.
Paul glanced at his surroundings and suppressed a laugh. The biggest and most prestigious college campuses on the planet had nothing on Atlantis…not by a long shot.
Nemesis
1
January 13, 2044
Paul stood on the small square platform, looking out over the giant indoor pool surrounding him as he checked his breath mask one last time. The seal on his neck appeared to be in place, and the clingy material had a firm hold on his head, enough to cause a mild headache, but that was good. The tighter the grip, the less water would seep underneath the edges and up to his mask’s breathing chamber.
He glanced around one last time, getting his bearings, then pressed the button on the start pedestal to his left. A tone sounded as the bright overhead lights cut out and dropped everything into darkness. Remembering where the edge of the platform was, Paul stepped off into the blackness and fell into the mass of invisible water a half meter below.
Disoriented at first, Paul didn’t move until he got his equilibrium reset, which took several long seconds. Tiny bubbles of air exited four pinprick vents on the side of his mask, but he couldn’t see the bubbles race their way to the surface…or anything else for that matter. There wasn’t a single light on in the entire room, above water or below. Paul was going to have to navigate the first part of this challenge blind.
When he was fairly sure that he had his head upright, he reached a hand up and felt for the line of bubbles. Using them as a plumb line he straightened his angle in the water so he was perpendicular to the floor and allowed himself to sink to the bottom some 18 meters down.
Thanks to his thin and muscular build, sinking wasn’t a problem, but since he was on the clock he turned on his forearm thruster tubes and accelerated his descent. Waiting without anything to see or measure his progress by, Paul felt like he was swallowed up in the vastness of deep space, save for the lack of starlight. At the same time the vastness felt claustrophobic, and he was grateful when his feet finally touched bottom with a sudden jolt.
He released the handheld thrust buttons and let them retract on their bungee cords back into the units and out of harm’s way. Bending at the knees, Paul reached down and felt for the floor with his bare hands. When he found it, he stretched out horizontally and began swimming about, stroking the smooth surface in a blind search pattern.
After several meters of traveling along the bottom, Paul found one of the shallow ridges that ran out from the center of the pool like a sunburst. Trick was, did he remember which way to go or had he got himself totally turned around.
He was fairly sure the center was off to his right, so he followed the ridge that direction, keeping his hands on it at all times. Even losing contact with it momentarily would cost him several seconds, and since this was an individual challenge, he was competing against the other 99 trainees for points and bragging rights…or in Paul’s case, just trying to keep up with the rest. He was one of the poorest swimmers in the group, ranking #98 on all unassisted swim challenges, which included surface laps in an Olympic sized pool.
Fortunately this challenge wasn’t unassisted, and he had the use of the forearm thrusters to move him about, which leveled the playing field considerably, but considering how good his fellow trainees were in general, he couldn’t afford to lose precious seconds by being sloppy.
Eventually Paul found his way to the center of the sunburst located directly under where the starting platform ‘floated,’ though technically it was connected by a low arched walkway to the side of the pool, but from within the water it appeared to be a floating island…or at least would have if the lights were still on.
When he reached the center the ridges flattened out and led Paul’s hands to a shallow crater, in the center of which was a small navigational add-on for his breath mask. He felt for its dimensions and mentally pictured the angle it was at, rotating it around and lining it up with his right eye. The device snapped into place over the transparent panel, obscuring what would have been his vision in that eye, had there been anything to see.
A small button press activated the echo-location device, and a series of small chirps were audible in the water. Each time the rapid fire sounds emanated from the device, a lingering blip would appear on screen with the computer processed dimensions of the pool and the objects it contained. It appeared to Paul as if he was looking through the rotating blades of a fan, but the greenish blue image gave him more than enough information to begin navigating around the pool in search of his first cube.
He reached over to his left gauntlet and pulled out the hand control, which slipped neatly over his left thumb. Paul repeated the process on his right arm, passing over the small emergency wristband that held a panic button underneath a small plastic case. If for any reason Paul had difficulty with his breathing equipment, he could lift the case, press the button, and within 13.5 seconds the entire pool would drain out through hidden grates covering the floor.
It was a reassuring backup for Paul and the others, and alleviated some of their discomfort at having to train underwater…that, and the equipment upgrades that they’d made three months ago.
The trainers had started them off using standard scuba gear, with pathetic goggles, a breathing mouthpiece, and a pair of awful air tanks strapped to their backs. Paul had had the worst trouble, with water continually going up his nose, as it did every time he went in the water, but the subsurface drills didn’t allow for him to clear his airways like he could swimming laps on the surface, and as a result the first few training runs had been a nightmare for him and some of the others.
Even the best swimmers were complaining after the first day. The equipment wasn’t designed for speed, agility, or any basic functionality aside from floating in place and looking at the scenery. After three days of complaints, which apparently echoed up through the Star Force ranks, Davis had come down to ‘trailblazer’ territory…the large sector of Atlantis where the trainees lived and trained…with a team of equipment engineers to assist the trainees in designing their own equipment.
They’d self-delegated the responsibilities for the designs to Ben, Mark, Jason, Zak, Ian, and Paul, the three best swimmers and the three worst out of the group, while the others would exhaustively field test the designs and offer feedback. All their underwater swimming training was suspended, with the allotted time redesignated for the equipment work. They spent a total of 24 days on the project, with the engineers planning out and fabricating their designs within a matter of hours using the wide array of industrial resources available to them in Atlantis.
At the end of it all, they’d created the breath mask that Paul now wore, the vest-like air tanks that were smooth, form-fitting, and neutrally buoyant, the tube-like forearm thrusters, and even the echo-location device, among a variety of other equipment that Paul wasn’t using at the moment. In fact, the only other piece of equipment that he wore was a pair of black, knee-length jammers courtesy of Speedo. That was one piece of equipment they hadn’t needed to redesign.
With the echo ‘eye patch’ in place and functioning, Paul pointed his right arm in the direction of a slowly swimming box taking laps in the pool at about 2/3rds depth, and partially depressed the soft trigger. Inside the tube attached to the outside of his forearm, six tiny fan blades spun up, creating a small jet engine-like effect to provide him with propulsion.
Paul pointed his other arm at his feet and activated it in reverse, adding to his forward momentum with his arms offset, which would have looked like a superman pose had there been any light to see him with. He made minor corrections with the angles of his arms and goosed the speed of each thruster accordingly to intercept the automated underwater ‘rover’ that held his first objective.
When he got to the turtle-like device he swam up over it, right arm held out and keeping his pacing, while he deactivated his left thruster and reached out to grab the small cube on the rover’s back. It was firmly stuck into a slot, and Paul had to put his foot on the rover’s back to pry it loose, but with a little pressure it came free, lighting up with a bright orange glow in the process.
Paul’s left eye blinked against the light, while his right was still obscured by the echo-location device. As his eye adjusted, four fruit loop-like hoops lit up in the distance, indicating where he had to go next.
Unable to hold the cube in his hand and thumb the acceleration button at the same time, Paul reached over and manually set the speed knob to setting 4 out of 5, then added adjustable thrust from his left thruster as he jetted away from the rover toward the nearest of the hoops, sliding through it with ease and twisting his arms to the left to make a sweeping turn.
He about missed the second hoop and had to cut all thrust from his left arm, but he managed to swing through the second with the cube in his grasp, registering each passage and deactivating the hoop lights when completed. When Paul finished the quartet, a small pedestal on the floor near the north end of the pool lit up with an orange ring around its square top, and Paul jetted off towards it as fast as he could, kicking up his right thruster to 100%.
