Fleet Academy

by M. Scott Cottrell

  Trina stepped over to the access pad and pressed her thumb against it. The digital screen displayed a 19. Matt followed suit and got rack 17. The Commander pressed his thumb and received 15.

  “Good,” The Commander said. “Now the way this works is different than on Earth. We don’t have the luxury of having four people help us suit up. What we do here is go to two tenths gee. That means the suit weighs only 40 Kilos. It’s on a special rack that allows you to step into the bottom half and then it lowers the top half down. The top is powered by umbilical while it’s mounted in the cradle so you have the use of your arms. Once you get the top aligned and connected to the bottom ring the rig will release and leave the whole suit powered on its own. Put on your gauntlets and helmet and you’re ready to go. Just remember it still has its full mass so don’t let it get ahead of you. Let’s go suit.”

  The three of them stepped into the airlock and it ‘whooshed’ closed behind them. Matt felt a tickle in his stomach as the gravity began winding down. It felt like he was falling, but his eyes told him he wasn’t, a decidedly uncomfortable feeling, especially after his large breakfast. The feeling soon passed and the green light over the second door snapped on. The commander hit the open button and the door slid open with a whoosh.

  Matt was awed by the size of the space he was looking into. They were at one end of a compartment that looked like it went most of the width of the ship and was about twenty meters wide. The commander stepped out into the compartment, taking long bounding strides in the low gravity. Matt tried to walk but kept bouncing off to the side, while Trina seemed to be faring a bit better at going straight, but kept bouncing too high, looking like she was going to bounce clear to the four meter high ceiling on one bounce.

  “Let’s keep it business in here. There’s plenty of time to play on your own time.” The commander called over his shoulder without looking back.

  “Aye sir,” Matt said with more confidence than he felt.

  The commander stopped at rack 15 and motioned his two charges to their respective equipment racks. “When you’re ready to put on your gear punch the activate thumb pad on the control pad on the side. The system will only open the gate if you’re at the rack with your suit. Go ahead and punch in now.”

  Matt punched his thumb to the pad and the gate slid up with a hiss. He stepped inside an area that was the size of a large closet with mesh walls. On the back wall was the bottom half of a deep space hard suit, held out in a rack as if trying to walk on its own. About two meters above it was the top of the suit, hanging in some kind of holding assembly. Matt grabbed an overhead bar and hoisted himself into the air, swinging his legs over the bottom of the suit. The hard suit was donned in two pieces, the lower section consisting of rigid sections connected with semi-flexible joints. The joints measure the intent of the motion of the wearer and then use powered actuators to follow those movements. Once the wearer was inside the lower section, the upper portion was lowered onto him. The upper section contained the life support, power and communications modules mounted in packs that were attached to the front of the unit, which like the lower section had all powered joints. In addition, this particular design built for deep space use, had built in mobility thrusters in a large pack that was mounted to the back of the suit. Once the wearer has wiggled into the upper section, the suit is coupled together, the top half powering the joints of both halves to allow the wearer to operate in environments up to three gees. Initially though, the lower unit is a stiff-legged case that the wearer has to wiggle into like trying to pull on a pair rigid metal pants.

  Matt wiggled his legs into the suit until he felt his feet rest in the boots, then reached into the suit and coupled the cool suit to the hardsuit hose connections. Reaching to the side he hit the red button mounted on the wall, starting the upper rack lowering down toward him. He reached his arms up and allowed it to lower over him, working his arms into the stiff sleeves. The rack continued to lower as he wiggled, until the two suit sections touched together, alignment mechanisms on the two racks ensuring that the two suit halves are properly aligned. The rack came to a halt just as the two halves touched the inflatable motion sensing system, inflating and powering the joints so he could move. With his head now sticking out the neck collar, he reached down and found the locking joint for the two halves of the suit, like he had learned in training. He squeezed the latch, forcing the two halves of the suit the last few millimeters together. He felt, more than heard, the locking ring engage and rotated the locking lever completing the mating the two suit halves. He reached over and pulled the helmet off the clip and pulled it down over his head and locked it in place with a slight twisting motion.

  As soon as it snapped in, the screen above the visor blinked to life and started scrolling self-test data, the inflatable portions of the legs filling to press against his legs. He tested each leg by lifting it, feeling the motors and drives follow his leg movements. As the screen blinked the large “OK” symbol he pulled the gloves over his hands and latched them in place. He reached across to the pad fastened to the left arm of the suit and hit the pressure test button. Matt felt the suit pressurize and then bleed down to operating level, his helmet monitor flashing a ready indicator. Matt punched the last function button on the pad, the suit computer talking to the ships computer before the suit came free of the rack; its entire weight sinking on him for a moment. The lower unit drives kicked in and lifted the weight back off of him, his fingers adjusting the lift on the drives until he was comfortable.

  The two tenths gee bay felt more normal now, though his movements were still restricted by the mass and resistance of the suit. He stepped out of the rack space and back into the bay. He punched on his Comm unit and immediately heard the Commander talking to Trina.

  “...ahead and punch the override code. We can have the maintenance chief look at it when were done.”

  “Aye sir.”

  “Mr. Molter, are you up?”

  “Aye sir, right behind you.”

  “No problems?”

  “None sir. All checks completed and running normally”

  “Good. Mr. Forester has a slight problem, but it’s not critical for what we’re doing. These suits are configured for two modes, a short duration and a long duration. In short mode, the suit will pressurize with normal air ratios and hold at one atmosphere. This isn’t very efficient for either power or air capacity, so they have a long term mode. Go ahead and switch to long term mode now if you haven’t already.”

  “Aye sir” they both responded at the same time as they reached for the control pad on their left arms and hit the appropriate control buttons.

  “OK. That puts us in long term mode. The echo version hard suit is the only suit that has this mode. In order to make the suit systems last longer, it will pressurize at normal air. Once it has checked suit integrity, it will begin to crank the oxygen levels up until it’s at eighty percent at one atmosphere, then over the next half hour it will drop pressure slowly to one half atmosphere. This allows the nitrogen in your blood to come out of solution slowly. If you suddenly dropped pressure in normal air you would get the bends. Once it’s at half an atmosphere it will drop the oxygen down to twenty five percent. The scrubbers will maintain the co2 levels at the appropriate levels for the work you’re doing based on the motor demand curves. This allows us to get to work quicker without having to pre-breath pure oxygen for a couple hours like you did with the old delta class suits. Any questions?”

  “None sir” both of his charges answered over the radio circuit.

  “We're working on a single intersuit frequency right now, but you have command suits with multiphase transceivers. You can run as many as three frequencies at once. In addition a command suit has the ability to interface with up to ten other suits, getting their comm as well as operating stats. The suit will automatically multiplex each unit in the work party and indicate for you who the speaker was. It can process up to three signals at once. It also has a dedicated frequency bu
tton for the suit room controller and the command frequency. You can pick any suit in the stick and check its vitals. All the manual controls are done through the arm pad, the automatic ones display on the right panel in your helmet. If you haven’t done so already, I expect you to study up on all the features of this version. I want you both fluent before the first solo EVA.”

  “Yes sir.” Matt replied as they walked to the end of the bay. It was an odd sensation walking along in a two hundred kilo suit, but feeling like it weighed only a few kilos. The leg drive motors hummed and whined gently as they took load with each step.

  “We have three double locks at the end of the bay. The inner lock takes us down to hard vacuum, and the outer lock takes us to zero G. Either lock can do either job, and the double lock keeps a lock failure from dumping the whole suit bay. In an emergency that could be critical. The locks are designed so only one door can be open at any one time. We’ll use lock one.”

  “Aye sir.” Matt and Trina replied over their comm units.

  The commander hit the open button and the lock door slid open, completely silent to them inside their suits. The three of them stepped into a space that was large enough to easily fit ten men in their suits. As soon as they were all inside the Commander closed the lock and started the cycle. Matt felt the suit stiffen as the outside pressure fell. His suit diagnostic panel noted the falling pressure, flashed up the appropriate warning and then compensated, starting the nitrogen bleed cycle by ramping the oxygen level up to eighty percent.

  “Check your suits and make sure you’re in the green,” the commander called. “Sing out when you’re ready.”

  Matt heard Trina call out, “All clear except the suit temp sensor.”

  “Roger that Mr. Forester.” Was his reply.

  Matt finished his checks and radioed across, “Molter, all green.”

  “Very good Mr. Molter. Let’s proceed.”

  The commander pushed a button on the panel by the next door and it slid back in total silence. There was no air left to carry any noise it might have made. The three of them stepped into the second lock and the commander closed it behind them. He hit a control and Matt felt himself float free of the deck as if he were falling upwards. The suit gyros quickly stabilized him and he floated gently a few inches off the deck.

  “EVA Team one to command.” He heard the commander call.

  “EVA Team one, go ahead,” the disembodied voice replied over the command frequency.

  “Team one ready to proceed.”

  “Affirmative Team one. Proceed at will”

  “Thank you command,” the commander finished. Then to Matt and Trina he radioed, “Everybody ready?”

  “Aye sir.” They both responded enthusiastically.

  “Ok. Follow me. If you get in trouble sing out.” The commander said and he jetted the short distance to the air lock control and punched a red button. The door slid back soundlessly, opening a portal onto real space for the first time. If Matt was impressed by his view from the station, his current view was astonishing. He looked out the bay door and into eternity, the depth of black full of white pinpricks of light, some that you could swear were there, but if you tried to look at them, they would disappear. Matt gave his thrusters a tiny shot and began moving toward the deep of space.

  As he slowly drifted free of the air lock the arc of blue and white swirl broke into the edge of his vision, seeming to be painted against the stark black canvas. Matt hung there in awe, his jaw hanging open for what felt like an eternity as he slowly floated, feeling like a tiny dot on a huge painting. The huge wheel of Station One slowly rotated, carrying the Saint Claire away from him, making him feel as if he were moving away instead of being stationary. Well almost stationary, he reminded himself, as he raced along at nearly twenty eight thousand kilometers per hour. Reality snapped back into focus when the radio broke the total silence.

  “I felt the same way the first time. Now if you two are ready?” the commanders voice asked inside his helmet.

  “Aye sir.” Matt replied as he gently triggered the gyro system to rotate himself to face back toward the station and ship. The Saint Claire was slowly sliding away as the station rotated, continuously exposing a new side of the stations wheel toward the sun. The Saint Claire was sticking out of the clean lines of the donut shaped station ring like a strangely shaped appendage, following the rotation of the stations wheel as it was held fast by its docking clamps and tunnels. He touched the control pad to enable the internal motion switches in his right gauntlet and used slight movements of his fingers to gently nudged himself back toward the retreating surface of the ship with his control thrusters. He spun himself around enough to see Trina follow him.

  “Three clear of the lock, command.” The commander radioed on the command circuit. The door slid shut, closing the last tie to atmosphere.

  “Ok people. Here’s the job. Before every deployment we check all the external weapons ports and maneuvering thrusters. Anything you find that doesn’t look right, sing out. Mr. Molter, take the port side. Mr. Forester, take the starboard. I’ll take the spine and belly. Work from the stern to the bow. There should be twelve maneuvering thrusters and two weapons points on each side. None of the weapons are deployed, what we want of do is make sure the doors are fully sealed with no signs of damage. Keep your eyes peeled for icicles caused by a release of the automatic sealant.”

  “Aye sir.” They both responded before jetting off.

  Matt jetted over the top and down toward the stern in a graceful arc. “Heck. This is even easier than the simulator” Matt said to Trina on the intersuit frequency as he cruised over the top of the ship and down the port side. That was until he decided to stop at the stern. As he hit the braking thrusters, he started a slow spin. Overcompensating for the thrust, he overshot the stern and flew off into space in a slow tumble. It took several seconds before he recovered and regained attitude control, and by that time he was nearly a fifty meters from the stern of the ship.

  “Having a problem Mr. Molter?” the commander asked.

  “No sir. I just overshot a bit.”

  “I understand. Remember the braking thrusters are not as strong as the forward thrusters so you need to watch the conservation of momentum. Roll yourself over and use the forward thrust to shoot you back instead of using the breaking thrusters if you are trying to make a fast or high power maneuver.”

  “Aye sir! Thank you.” Matt replied, slightly embarrassed at getting caught so far out, but grateful for the tip. By the time he had moved back to within a few meters of the ship and slowed again, he felt more confident of his abilities. He maneuvered himself to creep to the side of the ship, not wanting to end up crashing into the ship. He spotted the first of four stern thrusters and moved in to inspect each nozzle. After a close inspection he moved to the next.

  “This isn’t so bad is it, Trina?”

  “Not too bad, but kind of hot work, I’m sweating like crazy.” She answered back.

  “Why don’t you crank your suit temp down a couple ticks then?” Matt asked.

  “I did, but it doesn’t seem to be helping much.”

  “Knock off the chatter.” The Commander snapped.

  “Aye sir.” They both responded.

  Over the next hour he worked his way up the side of the ship checking each thruster and weapons port he could find, and searching the smooth skin for icicles. The number of viewports on the ship were few, but he took time to glance in them as he slid past as well as those on the docking tunnels as he worked past them. He paused a bit as he looked in the bridge viewport, noticing a good-sized group of people clustered around a number of consoles. He slid down the nose to the docking latch ring and checked the last of the thrusters.

  “All done sir,” he called to the commander.

  “Good Mr. Molter. Go ahead and check on Mr. Forester. She should be done about now too.”

  “Aye sir,” he replied as he jetted gently over to the starboard side. He looked down the s
ide of the ship and didn’t see Trina. He slowly moved down the length of the ship looking for her.

  “Trina!” Matt called on her comm circuit.

  After a short wait he called a second time. Switching over to the control frequency he called “Ensign Forester, do you copy?”

  Matt was greeted with silence.

  “Command do you have contact with Ensign Forester?” Matt requested.

  “Negative EVA, we do not have contact with Ensign Forester at this time.”

  “Thank you, command.”

  “Mr. Molter, is there a problem?”

  “Affirmative Commander. I’m about half way down the starboard side and I have not made contact with Ensign Forester yet.” He replied as he switched his channels around to check her suit vitals. “I also get no response on her suit vitals.”

  “Very well, continue your current path. Let me know when you reach the stern.”