Humanity Unlimited 1: Liberty Station

by Terry Mixon

  “Does that take long?”

  “That depends on the person. I think you’ll take to it quickly. Sandra, too. Rex, well, maybe by the time we get to Mars.”

  “Hey,” he said mildly.

  She laughed. “I’m sure you’ll do fine. Okay, use your hands to gently push on the chair and send yourself toward the handholds. I’ll be right there with you.”

  Harry shoved off with too much force, but not as badly as some she’d seen. He also tumbled in the air because he was off balance. She let him hit because it wouldn’t hurt him and it would teach him a lesson.

  He looked chagrined. “That didn’t go so well.”

  “You’ll pick it up. You ever go scuba diving?”

  “Sure. Is this like that?”

  “Only in that you had no idea what you were doing before it all clicked into place in your head. This will be the same. Everyone gets the hang of it eventually.”

  She led him through the airlock. A pair of attendants was just arriving to bring the new crew on board. “I’m certified,” Jess said. “I’ve got this one.”

  The ship’s air smelled different from the lifter. A shade more metallic, but not as stuffy. It definitely wasn’t like natural air, but it was good enough.

  Planting her feet on the hull, she grabbed his belt. “Hold still. We could use handholds, but I’m in a hurry.”

  One light push sent them floating the direction she wanted. She was pleased to see that she’d accounted for his mass fairly well. They’d only miss her point of aim by a few feet.

  They drifted with deceptive slowness and she stopped them at the hub. She pulled them around the corner into the spine. The spokes to the torus were only a short distance away.

  Unlike the rest of the spine, the torus’ hub rotated. So, each spoke made a trip around the spine twice each minute. That took some getting used to.

  It had also taken a tremendous amount of engineering to account for the edges. The spine was inside the moving hub so that conduits, pipes, and supports could run along the entire length of the ship. The junction with the spokes could even seal if there was an explosive decompression.

  Jess got Harry to the hub. “See how the ladders have arrows?” she asked. “That’s direction of travel. It’s awkward to run into someone going the other direction. If you do, the person in the wrong has to back up.

  “There are also elevators. We built the doors into the spokes since the cars can’t come all the way into the hub. We cinch cargoes into the hub and match speeds. It’s a bit complicated, but it greatly simplifies boosting the ship.”

  “Seems straightforward enough. We’re in zero-G. That changes as we go down, right?”

  “Right, though we don’t use up and down. Too confusing. Going toward the torus is outward and going toward the spine is inward. In the torus, the direction of rotation is spinward. The other is antispinward.”

  He considered that. “How do you know which is which?”

  Jess smiled. “You can feel the rotation. I’ll show you. Come on.”

  She moved ahead of him. “Always keep one hand on a handhold until you’re certified. Then you can do this.” She lightly shoved off and coasted above the handholds. After a dozen feet, she stopped herself. It would ruin her image of competence if the line yanked her up short.

  When the centrifugal force grew strong enough, they switched directions and it felt as though they were climbing down a ladder. The pull grew stronger with every rung until they came out in the innermost torus level.

  Jess unhitched the line and put it into a cubby with others just like it. “Let’s get you settled in and I’ll be off.”

  She led him down the corridor. “See how it curves up in each direction? It always makes me think of hamsters in their exercise wheels. And plenty of people get their exercise in just that way. Walk long enough and you’ll get back to where you started.”

  “You said we could tell which direction we’re spinning. How?”

  She stopped. “Close your eyes. Turn in the direction that feels like you’re moving toward.”

  He paused and turned to spinward. “That’s weird.”

  “Your inner ear knows when you’re moving, even if your eyes tell you you’re not. Also, check this out. Do you have a coin in your pocket?” It usually took a while before people stopped carrying money around with them.

  “Probably.” He found one and held it out to her.

  “Drop it.”

  He let it go and it fell to the deck, but not in a straight line. The coin fell in a curve, angling toward antispinward.

  “Whoa!” he said, grabbing the coin and doing it again. “What the hell?”

  “That’s the Coriolis Effect. We’re rotating, but the coin is falling directly away from the spine. As we move, that direction changes from our perspective. So, the falling object curves. If you toss a ball, you’ll have to deal with the same physics. It’ll seriously screw up your basketball game.”

  “And shooting. Sandra will be seriously dismayed.”

  Jess laughed. “We don’t have any shooting ranges, so that won’t be a problem. You’ll get used to it after a while. Come on.”

  She led him to a cross corridor and down to her room. “I’m here. I reserved the room across for you. We assigned the others rooms on this corridor. Your personal gear will arrive once they start unloading the lifter.”

  “People get single occupancy rooms in space?”

  “They do when we have enough to go around. The rooms are small compared to those on Earth, but they’re large enough. I really need to go look at the reactor, so you’ll have to hang here for a bit. Someone will be along to give you a real tour shortly.”

  She grabbed him by the shoulder. “Welcome to space, Harry.”

  * * * * *

  Harry gave his new home a short walk-through while he waited for his guide. He’d expected the room to be something like a cruise ship cabin, but it was more like a small apartment. He had a living room, a kitchenette, a bedroom, bathroom, and a spare room that he could use for anything he wanted, he supposed.

  The bed was a queen and already made. Built in dressers and closets had basic supplies like new underwear and ship’s suits like the one he wore. The ones in his closet already had his last name on the breast. A quick check showed that the bathroom had basic supplies, as well.

  The kitchenette had a microwave to heat things up, and a small oven to bake. The two-element stovetop would suffice for his cooking skills. A small fridge stood ready, but was empty.

  A buzz at the door announced he had a visitor. A short Asian man with silver oak leaves on the shoulders of his jumpsuit smiled at him and extended a hand. “Mister Rogers, welcome aboard. I’m Captain Lee, the commanding officer of Liberty Station.”

  Harry shook the man’s hand. “Captain, it’s a pleasure to meet you, but I’m sure you’re a very busy man. You don’t need to show me around.”

  “It’s no problem at all. I needed a break, so I thought I’d give you a tour of the ship’s common areas and then have lunch. I realize it’s after dinnertime down at the spaceport, but we run on GMT up here. Have you looked around your quarters? I hope they’re acceptable.”

  “They’re bigger than I expected, actually. So is this whole ship. She’s amazing.”

  The officer grinned. “Yes, she is. Come on and we’ll stroll down to the public section of the torus. Your bag should be on your bed when you get back from lunch.”

  “Is there a lock for the door?”

  “No. Where would someone take a stolen object? We don’t use money directly on the ship. Everyone gets their pay electronically and purchases come out of those accounts at the public stores. Meals are part of the pay, so no charge there.”

  They walked back to the main corridor and then headed antispinward. Harry nodded and smiled politely at the people they passed. “What about secure areas of the ship like the bridge and engineering?”

  “Those are locked. Only authorized personnel can
access them. The control consoles are locked, as well.”

  They passed out of the housing section and into what looked like a park. Harry stopped and stared in amazement. There was grass on the ground and small trees under a large, opaque dome. The lights seemed to be about the same color as the sun.

  “This is one of our habitat zones,” Lee said, smiling at Harry’s bemused expression. “We have other areas for growing food hydroponically, but places like this let the crew have a taste of home.”

  “I’m surprised you don’t have a view of space here. Radiation?”

  The officer shook his head. “Not exactly. We have a powerful magnetic field that will protect the ship once we leave Earth. Impact shielding and water surround each hull. Micrometeorites are a concern, as well as cosmic radiation that might be too energetic for the magnetic field to stop. There are a few viewing areas, but we thought the habitat zone wasn’t the right place for them. We’ll look at one before we stop off in the cafeteria.”

  Harry mulled that over. “I saw my cabin had a kitchenette. If there’s a cafeteria, what use is it?”

  “Want to watch something on the screen while you snack on some chips and dip? Maybe make a grilled cheese sandwich or an intimate dinner? That’s why we put one in every set of quarters. Feel free to use it or not, as you like.”

  He saw movement in one of the trees. Something was up there. An orange cat walked out on a limb and stared haughtily down at them. It crouched and leapt to another branch, seemingly accounting for the Coriolis Effect with ease.

  “You have cats,” he said, surprised. “Do you have pests?”

  “Not that I’m aware of. The screening process was good enough to make sure we didn’t get rodents or insects. Vacuum does wonders for that. No, we have some cats and dogs as common pets. They’re all domesticated and friendly.

  “We have several crewmembers dedicated to seeing to their health and wellbeing. Given how quickly they breed, we should be able to start allowing private pets in a few years.”

  The area next to the park was similar to a mall, with all kinds of stores. Many of the people were dressed casually. Harry was glad he’d brought some of his regular clothes.

  Lee gestured around them. “You can buy any number of personal items in these stores. They’re charged to your account.”

  “How do they know who I am?”

  “That’s a good question. We’ll get you set up with a chip in your palm. The ship will know who you are and be able to track you anywhere inside the hull. That’s partly for safety. We don’t want someone wandering into a dangerous section of the ship.”

  “It’s also a security feature,” Harry said approvingly. “You know if someone enters an area they aren’t cleared for.”

  “True enough,” the captain agreed. “That isn’t the reason for them, though. We’ve vetted every member of this crew very thoroughly. The cafeteria is just ahead, but let’s go see the observation level first.”

  That required a detour to the edge of the habitat area. A short set of stairs led them up to an airlock. The doors stood open and he could see a wide room with a clear ceiling. The central spine of the ship was directly overhead and shone brightly in the sun. The Earth occupied one side of the view, seeming to spin quickly.

  “It’s beautiful,” Harry said. “I think I’d get a little dizzy if I had to watch it all the time.”

  Lee laughed. “Most people feel that way at first, but the mind adjusts just as well as the body. The micrometeorite protection for this area is under the deck. If you’re ever here and this section loses pressure, there are hoods and oxygen canisters in the lockers against the wall. Keep calm, put one on, and go to the lock. It has two doors, so you can get back into the habitable area.”

  Harry pointed at the section of the spine facing toward the Earth. “Those are the engines? They don’t look the part.”

  “Appearances can be deceiving. The hull there is on hinged arms. When the time comes to boost, it opens like a flower. And, once we reach a new orbit, the hull closes and we can use the equipment mounted there. We get the best of both worlds.”

  Harry watched the universe turn for a few minutes in silence. This made him feel almost insignificant. The entire Earth could vanish and the rest of the galaxy wouldn’t notice.

  “What’s the plan going forward?” he eventually asked.

  “We’re still bringing the last of the crew and supplies aboard. We have another dozen lifters coming. Once the new reactor is online and our current one is playing backup, we’ll disassemble the solar array and put it into storage. That will give us six docking points for the lifters.

  “Once the last of them has unloaded, we’ll rotate the ship so the engines are in line with our orbit around the Earth and start boosting. We’ll break orbit on a course for the comet Miss Cook found the coordinates for.”

  “How long will it take us to get there?”

  “It’s not all that far away, so about ten days. We’ll boost to a speed somewhat faster than it and coast into the same orbit. Then we’ll decelerate to match speed.”

  Harry took one last look at the Earth. “I can only imagine how that’s going to freak them out down there.”

  “No doubt,” Lee agreed. “I’m afraid it’s time to go get some food. I have to get back to the emergency bridge. We’re using it to monitor the reactor installation. We’ll have plenty of time to get to know one another as we head to Mars.”

  Harry followed the captain out, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the glory of the view until it was out of sight. This would be an amazing trip.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “Don’t move it so quickly!” Jess said.

  Chief Engineer Ray Proudfoot gave her a look. “Jess, take a breath. I promise I won’t slam the radioactive material into the reactor.”

  “Sorry. It’s been that kind of week. Just go extra slowly.”

  She watched him resume moving the manipulator arm that held the fuel. He inserted it into the reactor and locked it in place. She double checked the work and nodded. “Good. Really good. Thanks.”

  A nuclear reactor wasn’t like a light switch. She couldn’t just press a button and have power. She had to bring it online in stages. It would take about six hours to get the reactor to full output, but they didn’t need that kind of power on a spaceship. They’d wanted the unit for its portability and longevity. For their purposes, one-quarter output was more than good enough. It would take them two hours to get it up to that.

  Step by step, she and her team walked through the process. In an hour, the reactor had taken over supplying power to the ship from the weaker unit that the UN had approved. That anemic reactor would make a good backup, but it couldn’t do more than keep the lights on. They’d need twice the power to generate the protective magnetic field and fire the engines.

  “Power output at 25%,” the chief engineer said at last. “Lock it down. Great job, everyone.”

  Jess relaxed a little. The hardest part was over. At least until they fired the main engines.

  She headed for the hatch. “I’m going to the emergency bridge. Let me know if you see any unusual readings.”

  “Relax,” he said. “I have everything under control. Go get something to eat and maybe have a glass of wine. You’re wound up pretty tight.”

  “I will. I even brought a fresh bottle of wine. I hope it made the trip okay.”

  She left the power center and made her way forward in the spine to the emergency bridge. Her chip allowed her access to every portion of the ship, so all she had to do was wave her palm in front of the reader and the hatch slid open.

  The emergency bridge wasn’t very big, but it was close to the reactor room. The large screen up front took up the most space. It showed the Earth spinning below the ship. Four angled control panels allowed the officers to monitor various parts of Liberty Station. Several observation chairs could fold down from the rear bulkhead.

  They were almost ready to shift oper
ations to the control deck. That would be a big improvement since it had gravity. This one would now be reserved for unforeseen crises.

  Lee glanced up as she came in. “I see the new reactor is providing power. Well done, Jess. All systems are in the green and we’ll be ready to break orbit tomorrow morning. There are ten lifters still in the queue. The next two will lift in half an hour. The launch windows are 90 minutes apart. Once they dock, we’ll unload them.

  “We’ll get a good night’s sleep while that happens and be on our way shortly after breakfast.” He looked pleased. “It’s hard to believe we made it.”

  She took a slow breath and shook her head. “I’m not counting on that until we’re away. If things look good, I’m getting something to eat and have a glass of wine.”

  “Have two. Goodnight, Jess.”

  “Goodnight, Captain.”

  It only took a few minutes to get to her room. She hesitated and then buzzed on Harry’s door.

  She smiled when he opened it. “Good. You haven’t gone to sleep. I wanted to see if you were up for dinner.”

  “Sure. We’ll have to go to the cafeteria, though. I don’t have anything to fix.”

  “We can go to my place. I have some steak. And wine. I brought a fresh bottle. Did you get your gear?”

  “Yup.” He stepped into the hall. “I’ve put everything away and I’ve been scanning the entertainment channels. You’ve got the full spectrum up here. I’m especially impressed with the sports lineup.”

  Jess opened her door and led him inside. “We get the feed straight from the commercial satellites. Some of the channels will continue once we get going. The transmitter that we’ll be communicating with has a lot of bandwidth. The library is fairly extensive when it comes to movies, too. One of the benefits of Rainforest being the leading provider of streaming entertainment.”

  She found her freshly acquired bottle of wine and opened it to breathe. “We got the power online. We’re almost ready to go. How are Sandra and the rest getting along?”

  He followed her to the kitchenette. “Pretty good. They’re off exploring.”