The Imperative Chronicles, Books One and Two: The Mars Imperative & The Tesserene Imperative

by Mark Terence Chapman

  “I, uh—” Before she could cover her mouth, she vomited. Bile spewed outward in a crazy spiral as she continued to spin.

  At the sight, James’ stomach knotted again in sympathy.

  “Ah, Christ.” Murtagh looked skyward. “Heaven help me.” He shook his head as he launched himself in Kim Cappelletti’s direction. With amazing agility, he snagged her in mid-flight and twisted so they both were correctly oriented to land on the ceiling. Then he put an arm around her waist and leaped back toward the floor, twisting again and managing to land them both safely.

  Everyone else was within a meter of the floor when he dialed the gravity back up slowly. The rest of the rookies sank slowly to the floor and the trail of vomit splashed down nearby.

  “Now that you see the importance of zero-gee training, I trust y’all will pay close attention to your lessons.”

  He was greeted with enthusiastic nods, especially from Kim, who still looked a bit green. Murtagh tossed her a cloth that he’d pulled from somewhere. “Clean up your mess and join the rest of the group on your marks. Then we’ll continue.”

  * * * *

  James and Daniel stretched out as they allowed the heat from the sauna to soak into their sore, tired muscles.

  James groaned. “I never thought exercising in the absence of gravity would be harder than exercising on Earth.”

  “Yeah, that’s some workout all right. You end up using different muscles than you do in gravity. I had a chance to practice zero-gee acrobatics when I was here before, but just for fun—never anything that intense. Murtagh made it look easy, though, didn’t he?”

  “I’ll say. If I’m ever half that good I’ll figure I’m doing well.”

  Daniel nodded. “Same here. Let’s just hope we never need to be that good.”

  “You said it. Speaking of need, I need a beer.”

  “I’m with you. An ice cold beer—or two—and then a nice soft bed. And the best part is,” Daniel paused for effect with a wolfish grin, “we get to do it all again tomorrow!”

  James groaned again. “Oh-h-h-h. Don’t remind me.”

  * * * *

  0800, Day 2, Hangar Fourteen. The new hires stood on their marks, waiting for direction from Murtagh. He’d kept them there, in suspense for three minutes, without saying a word. Just staring. Beads of sweat had began to pop up on more than one forehead.

  Murtagh opened his mouth, but before he could speak the deck trembled as if struck with a massive hammer. Then a klaxon sounded. WAH-WAH-WAH-WAH.

  Those assembled looked at one another in confusion—except for Murtagh.

  “That’s the containment alarm. There’s been a hull breach. This ain’t a drill, children. Y’all don’t have duty stations, so stay here while I check it out. Y’all’ll be safe here. The hangar’s air-tight.”

  He raced out into the main passageway, shutting the hanger hatch behind him and leaving the new hires feeling alone and vulnerable in the huge, empty hangar. For a moment no one moved off their marks. Then they began to mill around and form small groups.

  Daniel approached James and spoke softly. “As big as the ODF is, something serious had to happen for us to feel it.”

  James nodded. “I was just thinking the same thing. Should we go and see if we can help?”

  “I suspect a mob of newbies milling around aimlessly would be more of a nuisance than a help. I’m the only one here who knows his way around the station or knows any of the station procedures. Everyone else would just get in the way. I’d go myself, but Murtagh told us to stay here. He’d skin me alive if he came back and I was gone.”

  “Yeah, I guess. So…what? We just stand around until he gets back?”

  Daniel shrugged.

  With nothing else for the new hires to do but speculate, the theories grew wilder and wilder, until finally Daniel stepped in to calm the others down.

  “Look people, there’s no use guessing what happened. Murtagh will be back soon and then he’ll let us know. In the meantime, how about doing calisthenics to burn off some nervous energy?”

  His suggestion was met with a distinct lack of enthusiasm, but at least the frantic mood was broken. After that, everyone stood around listlessly, waiting.

  Then Daniel sucked in his breath and went pale.

  “What’s the matter?” James asked, softly.

  Daniel pointed above the hatch. The green light had turned red.

  James frowned. “What does that mean?”

  “It means the hatch is sealed because there’s a vacuum on the other side.”

  Now it was James’ turn to go pale. “What the hell happened out there?”

  Daniel shook his head and shrugged. “Let’s keep it to ourselves for now. No sense panicking the others.”

  “Good, because I’m panicking enough for all of us.”

  That drew a smirk from Daniel that faded quickly. After that, there was nothing to do but wait and worry. Each minute seemed longer than the last. It didn’t take long for the speculation to begin again.

  “I know what that red light means,” one young man whispered to another, pointing. “It means there’s no air outside.”

  In the dead air of the chamber, the sibilance of his whisper was as audible as a shout, causing everyone to turn his way. Eyes widened in fear. Faces tightened. Several people swallowed.

  “What if no one’s coming for us?” he continued. “What if everyone else is-is dead? What if we’re stuck in here until we all suffocate?”

  “None of that, Andropov!” Daniel barked, hoping to keep the situation from getting out of control. “It’s probably just a minor malfunction. This is a big place, with lots of people and someone will be back to get us any time now. Just relax and try to stay calm.”

  Andropov opened his mouth to argue, then thought better of it and nodded. Some of the electricity faded from the air. The crowd that had gathered around Andropov began to disperse.

  James winked at Daniel. The he turned back to the red light, willing it to turn green. He continued to stare at it. It stubbornly refused to change color.

  Five minutes passed, then ten, then fifteen. James kept staring and sweating. Finally, after eighteen long minutes, the light turned green.

  Then red. Then green. Then red again. Then green.

  James looked to Daniel. “Does that mean it’s safe now?”

  The other shrugged. “Maybe. Or maybe the wiring’s shorting out. Or maybe the air’s being sucked out of other parts of the station and as it passes by the hangar it tricks the pressure sensor into thinking there’s air out there. Who knows?” He shrugged again.

  “Thanks for the reassurance.” James resumed staring.

  Three minutes later, the hangar hatch cycled and everyone tensed. Who would it be? Emergency personnel? Terrorists? An invading army?

  James whispered to Daniel, “Are we about to be rescued or slaughtered?”

  Daniel, face pale, swallowed and stared at the hatch.

  CHAPTER 4

  Engineering Marvels: Orbital Docking Facility (ODF)—ODFs serve many purposes; the primary ones being as a terminal for passengers transiting between Earth and spaceships, as a place for conducting low- and zero-gee research and manufacturing, and as a construction and maintenance platform for spaceships mining the asteroids—a shipyard in space. Ships assembled in orbit require less-powerful engines than ships launched from Earth and the engines are far more fuel-efficient. This makes the ships significantly less expensive to build and operate and opens the solar system to cost-effective exploration and mining.

  As an added benefit, ODFs are able to take advantage of Earth’s centrifugal force to slingshot ships and SPACE TRAINS into space, in a celestial game of “crack the whip.”

  — Excerpt from Encyclopedia Solaris, 2176

  * * * *

  An EVA-suited figure stepped through and opened his faceplate.

  Murtagh.

  Twenty-four sets of lungs emptied explosively in a communal release of held breath.
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  “There’s nothing for y’all to worry about, but I’ll be tied up for a while, helpin’ to clean up the mess. In the meantime, everyone return to your quarters. The breach has been sealed, so it’s safe to leave here. Don’t go anywhere but your quarters. I’ll contact y’all when it’s time to return for your lessons.”

  For a moment, no one budged.

  “Move it!”

  Daniel and James exchanged concerned looks and then trotted toward Murtagh, with the other new hires. Murtagh stepped aside to let them pass and then dogged the hatch behind them.

  * * * *

  Despite orders, James headed not to his quarters but to Daniel’s, where they continued to theorize about what had happened. Still lacking any actual information, their discussion was no more productive than before.

  “Mess?” James asked. “What mess was Murtagh talking about?”

  Daniel shrugged. “Who knows? I suppose we could always turn on the news. There might be something on about what happened by now.”

  “Good idea.”

  They tuned into the in-house news channel, where there was always something about events on the ODF, visiting dignitaries, official announcements, and the like. A middle-aged man sitting behind a desk spoke in grave tones.

  “—thorities still have no idea whether the explosion was deliberate or accidental. All they’ve disclosed so far is that it occurred in storage hold L23. Two deaths and several other injuries, some critical, have been reported. Most of the contents of the hold were either destroyed in the blast, or blown out into space.”

  The image changed to an exterior shot of the ODF, showing tugs and maintenance sleds attempting to retrieve the cargo and debris drifting away from Nautilus.

  “L23 is only a few hundred yards from Hangar fourteen.” Daniel said. “No wonder we felt it.”

  “Does sort of thing happen often?” James asked.

  “Not in the two semesters I spent here last year.”

  “It was an accident, right? I mean, no one would do that on purpose up here, with all that vacuum around—would they?”

  Daniel shook his head and shrugged.

  * * * *

  Eventually authorities determined that the explosion was the result of sabotage, reason unknown. There was no evidence pointing to a suspect, unfortunately. At first, people were nervous, expecting the other shoe to drop—another explosion, another act of sabotage. Was this a random event by a disgruntled employee, or the beginning of something larger, something systematic, something big enough to endanger the entire ODF?

  When nothing happened for several days, everyone relaxed and returned to their normal routine. Still, there was always the thought in the back of everyone’s mind. What if…?

  For James, the rest of first week seemed to last forever. He learned to function in zero-gee conditions, both in shirtsleeves and in an EVA suit, and his muscles gradually stopped protesting as they became accustomed to the new demands he was placing on them.

  He also learned to think through his questions before he asked them; especially after the one he posed on the second day. Sprawled on the deck in a moment of exhaustion and frustration he made the mistake of asking, “Why does someone who’s going to live and work on Mars need to know so much about working in a zero-gee environment? Moving around in the station is one thing, but learning to crawl on the outside of a ship while handling plasma welders seems like a waste of time.”

  Murtagh looked James up and down as if studying a particularly messy specimen of road kill. “So. Y’all don’t think you need to learn those skills, do you? I suppose y’all don’t think the average person on Earth needs to know how to perform cardio-pulmonary resuscitation if they’re not a doctor, or how to make minor repairs on a groundcar if they’re not a mechanic. Do you?” The latter came out more as an accusation than a question.

  James withered under Murtagh’s intense gaze. “I-I don’t know.”

  Murtagh spoke sharply, not letting James off the hook. “Of course you don’t know! That’s why yore here in this class. Suppose you were a parent and your child stopped breathin’? Wouldn’t it be a good idea to know CPR?”

  “Well, yeah, I guess—”

  “And if y’all were broken down on the side of the road in a blizzard halfway between Winnipeg and Saskatoon, wouldn’t it be a good thing to be able to make a minor engine repair before y’all froze to death?”

  “Well, sure, but—”

  “That’s why yore gettin’ zero-gee survival trainin’—just in case! Any more questions?” The way Murtagh said it, there was an implied “stupid” between “more” and “questions.”

  James wanted to dig a hole in the durasteel decking and crawl into it. None of the other rookies would meet his eyes. “No sir.”

  “WHAT?”

  “I-I mean, no more questions, Murtagh.”

  “That’s better. Now gettin’ back to what I was sayin’ before….”

  I can’t believe I did it again! When am I going to learn? Keep your big, fat stupid mouth shut unless you have an intelligent question to ask!

  Fortunately, that was the low point of the week. James even had the satisfaction of hearing Daniel get similarly lambasted for an equally dumb question the next day.

  It’s good to see that he doesn’t know everything.

  By the end of week one, most of the rookies had mastered the zero-gee exercises to the point where they were able to spend the majority of their time learning ship’s procedures, how to operate all sorts of station equipment, and other less physical subjects. Most of the rookies. Cappelletti, unsurprisingly, was the lone exception.

  Murtagh watched her tumble wildly once again through the air of Hangar Fourteen. “Cappelletti,” he intoned with a sad shake of the head, “you are the most uncoordinated physical specimen it has ever been my misfortune to have to train. But y’all need to be able to perform these zero-gee skills before you can pass the course. Meet me here every evenin’ at twenty-hundred hours and we’ll keep workin’ on it ‘til you get it right.”

  Daniel whispered from behind James, “Have you noticed how his y’alls tend to come and go? I think we’ve been had.”

  James turned his head and nodded his agreement with a wry grin.

  After the interminable first week, weeks two and three flew by. Before James knew it, orientation was almost over. He and Daniel arranged to meet for drinks the night before graduation.

  They were seated in the Sunset Lounge, facing west as the sun slipped down behind the atmosphere sitting atop the Pacific far below. The razor-sharp yellow orb turned a fuzzy orange-red as its light shone through the pollution in the air; the self-tinting window composite lightened in response. The two young men took in the view in silence, sipping their beers.

  James shook his head slightly. Wow, what a difference three weeks makes. I came here ignorant about everything, and now I’m about to leave here knowing…well, not a lot about anything, but at least I’m not so wet behind the ears. He could only guess at Daniel’s thoughts, but the other man’s face was equally pensive.

  Daniel didn’t keep him in the dark for long. “That Murtagh’s an SOB, isn’t he?” Rather than being angry, he was actually smiling fondly.

  “Yeah. You were right the first time. He is a hard-ass. But he’s a damn good teacher. I can’t believe how much I’ve learned in such a short time.”

  “I know what you mean. I thought I knew a lot from my time as an intern, but Murtagh showed me otherwise in a hurry.” Daniel finished with a wry grin.

  “Maybe so, but you were still way ahead of the rest of the class.”

  “For the first week, maybe. But most of you caught up fast. You’re at least as good as I am now in zero-gee.”

  “We’ll have to find out for sure when we get on the ship. The Ares Flyer is supposed to be docking tomorrow night. I hear their gym is equipped for Crunchball.”

  Daniel’s dark eyes flashed. “Stellar. That’ll give me something else to whip you at!”
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  “Ha! We’ll see about that!”

  The two finished their beers and had just ordered another round when Murtagh entered the bar.

  “Hey, Murtagh,” Daniel called out, “why don’t you join us for a beer. My treat.”

  James paled. “What are you doing?” he whispered. Jeez, the last thing we need is to get into trouble now!

  “What can it hurt at this point?”

  Still under his breath, James hissed, “Well, let’s see…how about getting fired and sent home?”

  Murtagh sauntered over with a stern look. “Are y’all tryin’ to bribe me or somethin’, Lim?”

  To James’ horror, Daniel burst out laughing. “With a beer? Murtagh, you know as well as we do that we passed. I’d just like to thank you for everything you did for us—especially for James here. He was pretty green until you got hold of him. Now he might actually amount to something.”

  “Hey!” James protested.

  “Well, in that case….” Murtagh acknowledged the compliment with a nod as he sat, and smothered a grin at James’ mortified blush.

  The trio chatted about inconsequentials through another round of beers and munchies.

  James mused as he drained his third beer. Hell, Murtagh’s not such a bad guy once you get to know him. It’s too bad we didn’t find this out earlier. It would have made Boot Camp a lot less stressful.

  Then again, maybe that wouldn’t have been such a good thing. Would I have learned as much if it’d been easier?

  “So, Murtagh,” Daniel began. “I know most of us are passing orientation easily, but what about Cappelletti? Did she ever get her space legs?”

  Murtagh smiled easily, all trace of his heavy Alabama accent absent. “We’ll all find that out tomorrow.” He left that mysterious remark hanging in the air.

  The chatter turned progressively less coherent as the men continued to drink far into the night, eventually getting rip-roaring drunk. At 0400 they finally staggered off to their respective quarters.