by Bob Blanton
“I could, but that’s a big area.”
“I can give you more details on their location as they limp along back to China.”
“That would be appreciated.”
“I’ll just text you their coordinates as I get updates,” Marc said.
“That should work.”
“Good day, Admiral.”
“Good day.”
“Okay, now we need them to have to go home,” Marc said. “ADI, I understand we have a mine on the submarine now.”
“Yes, Captain, we do.”
“Can you put a second one on it?”
“Yes, Captain, I have the FX4 sitting just off of its stern.”
“Okay, put the second mine where it will damage the comm tower but not disable the submarine.”
“Yes, Captain. I am sending the mine over now.”
“Isn’t that going to point back to us?” Samantha asked.
“Maybe, but these aren’t normal mines. They discharge an electric charge into the hull; I hope it will just look like metal fatigue.”
“Coincidental to their trying to infiltrate us?”
“We’ll wait until they’re well on their way to wherever they’re going next. We might only need one mine. They may be heading home.”
“That would be best.”
“ADI, let us know if the submarine sends anything else our way. Keep active sonar up.”
“Yes, Captain.”
“They’re bound to get tired of the pinging and go home,” Marc said. “Now everyone, go back to sleep. We’ll get updates in the morning.”
It was four hours before the submarine turned back toward China. Since they were going the right way, Marc just waited. Three days later, they were approaching Guam, and Marc had ADI text the admiral the coordinates. Two days later, they were just one hundred miles away from a small flotilla of the US Navy. Marc had ADI detach the second mine and set the first one to blow in two hours. He had her separate the drone from the mine to avoid losing it and their quantum relays. He had her pick up the two drones with a Fox that was shadowing the submarine. The first mine exploded and breached the hull of the submarine in its torpedo bay. The submarine was forced to surface, and the US Navy was quick to render assistance.
Chapter 7
Prep for Space
“Okay, is everybody ready to get fitted for spacesuits?” Catie asked.
“Yes!” the twins yelled.
“Sounds like you ladies are ready,” Fred said. “I’ve got the engines all warmed up.”
“Where are we going?” Natalia asked.
“To the Sakira. It’s the spaceship where we’ll get our shipsuits fitted.”
Natalia’s eyes bugged out in shock. “A real spaceship?”
“Yeah, actually we have to use another spaceship to get there. That’s the one we’ll be taking when we go after the asteroids. But the Sakira is the mother ship, and that’s where all the equipment we need is, as well as the tools to make our spacesuits.”
“You people are really something,” Natalia said. “A real spaceship.”
Fred took them out three miles from Delphi City and set the Mea Huli to circling on autopilot. He walked to the back of the boat, followed by Catie and her crew. “This is our dock,” he said as he wrestled the canvas bundle out of the hold and kicked it over the side. “Catie came up with this idea so they wouldn’t have to get wet every time they wanted to get into the Lynx. I hear it really came in handy later.” Fred pressed the release for the air tank, and everyone watched as the dock expanded.
“ADI, we’re waiting,” Catie said into her comm once the dock was fully expanded.
“Who’s ADI?” Natalia asked.
“Our ship’s computer,” Catie said.
“Look!” the twins shouted as the Lynx came up out of the water and started to skim the surface. “That looks just like your plane,” one of them said. Catie couldn’t tell them apart, and they refused to wear different clothes so anyone could, so she never knew who was speaking.
“It is just like it. That’s the original one, and we’re going to use it to go into space,” Catie said. “But right now, we’re going to use it to go to the Sakira, she’s underwater.”
“Why?”
“Because she’s a big secret,” Catie said. “We hide her underwater so nobody can find her.”
“Oh,” the twins nodded in satisfaction.
“Now, you know you have to keep all these secrets,” Catie added.
“Oh yes,” the twins said together. “Mommy explained it to us. And explained it to us.” The twins started giggling.
“Good,” Catie said.
“Your chariot awaits,” Fred announced, once the Lynx settled into the dock.
Catie led everyone over the dock and into the Lynx’s main cabin.
“Wow, this is as nice as the G650,” Samantha said.
“I think so. It’s a little bigger and has a much bigger cargo hold,” Catie said.
“And a shower,” Liz added. “You’re going to be real happy about that.”
“Will the shower work in microgravity?”
“Sure, it sprays water on you. There’s a drain with suction that pulls warm air from above and collects all the water,” Catie explained.
“You guys know how to live,” Natalia said. “I was figuring we’d be washing up in a bucket.”
“Oh no girl, we’re much too sophisticated for that,” Samantha said. “We’re going to be traveling in style. Gourmet meals, fine wine.”
Liz laughed at Samantha. “You’re going to have to figure out how to cook when the floor is really the wall.”
“Oh no, she won’t,” Catie said. “The galley rotates so you can actually cook while we’re accelerating.”
“Now that shows some forethought,” Samantha said. “I don’t suppose the rest of the cabin does.”
“Not actually, the shower and bathroom do; the couches will extend vertically instead of horizontally so it’ll be easy to sleep. And a panel comes out of the deck to create a floor for that area, but you’ll have to climb on the ladder to get around.” Catie pointed to the ceiling and the ladder that was embedded in it.
“I never noticed that before,” Liz said as she gazed up at the ceiling.
“We’ll do some practice for a few days, so everyone gets used to gravity being ninety degrees out from normal.”
“How?” Samantha asked.
Catie just extended her hand flat, with the fingertips pointing at Samantha. Then she rotated them up, so they were pointing at the ceiling.
“Oh, that makes sense. Pretty easy when we’re in the water.”
“Yep, it is.”
“Shouldn’t we get strapped in before we get underway?” Natalia asked.
“Oh, we’ve been underway since the hatch closed,” Liz said.
“I didn’t feel a thing.”
“ADI is a good pilot,” Catie said.
“Why thank you, Cer Catie,” ADI said over the ship’s intercom.
Liz showed Samantha and Natalia around the Lynx while Catie followed with the twins. The twins each had to use the toilet, they both wanted to take a shower also, but Catie was able to persuade them to wait until later to take a shower. The twins played with the couches, switching them from horizontal to vertical and back again multiple times. Catie was finally able to get them to settle down by bringing up their approach to the Sakira on the cabin’s display. Finally, they were aboard the Sakira, and all the water was pumped out of the flight bay.
As they exited the Lynx and started toward the lock, Natalia stopped to admire the Foxes parked in the bay. She whistled, “Now these are some nice-looking babies.”
“They’re the Foxes. We have four of them. We’ll be making some more soon, but we’ve got to make a few Lynxes and then the Oryxes first.”
“What is an Oryx?”
“Think of a C17 on steroids,” Liz explained. “Everything is the same except the engines and some mods to the wings so it can go
supersonic.”
“I assume it’s going to be capable of reaching orbit,” Natalia said.
“You got it in one,” Liz said. “It’s going to be our cargo hauler for space. We’ll be using it to lift the materials we need for the space station.”
“I should have guessed there’d be a space station with all the rest of this stuff going on.”
“Smart girl,” Liz said.
“My mamma didn’t raise no dummy,” Natalia said. “She couldn’t afford to send me to college, but she made me work hard at my studies.”
“This way,” Catie said as she indicated the way to the airlock. “Were you going to go to college after the military?”
“I was taking classes,” Natalia said, “but this offer from Kal was just too good. Good money, and I get my leg back.”
“What were you going to study?”
“I was going to study environmental engineering. That is if I can figure the math out.”
“Well, ADI can teach you all the material you need. We need an environmental scientist to maintain the systems in Delphi City as well as in Delphi Station when it comes online. I can help you with the math if you need it.”
“Sure, but you don’t have to bother, I know you’re busy. Can’t ADI teach math?”
“Yes, but she’s not that good at helping you understand it.”
“I heard that!” ADI announced over the ship’s intercom.
“Well, it’s true,” Catie said.
“I know, but I’m working on it, Cer Catie.”
“Good for you, ADI. Now here is the elevator, we’ll take it up to the medical bay where we’ll get fitted for our suits.”
They all made it into the medical bay and looked around. “Nice digs,” Natalia said.
“It is nice. Everybody, you need to tie your hair up on top of your head in a bun. You’ll be able to keep it in a ponytail later, but right now, we have to get measured, and it’ll interfere with the laser.”
“I don’t think I’ll have a problem,” Natalia said as she ran her hand over her buzz cut.
Catie laughed, “That’s not a bad style for space, easy to clean, easy to get your helmet on and off. Anyone want to change hairstyles?”
“Not me,” Samantha said.
“Me either,” Liz added.
“We do!” the twins said.
“Oh, I didn’t see that coming,” Catie said. “We have to ask your mother first. Okay, so for now, let me tie it up for you.”
“You can use the curtained-off area to undress and be measured,” Catie explained. “We have to be totally nude to be measured.”
“I don’t care about privacy,” Natalia said. “If you don’t care, I’m good with stripping down right here.”
The twins were already taking their clothes off. Samantha and Liz looked at each other, “Just us girls,” they said and started stripping.
“Stand here, put your feet on the footprints and hold your arms out to like this,” Catie demonstrated, standing on the footprints with her arms extended out to the side. “The laser just takes thirty seconds to measure you.” The console beeped. “See, I’m done.”
It took a few minutes to get the twins to stand still for the thirty seconds it took to get measured, but finally everyone was measured and dressed again.
“Okay, colors?” Catie asked.
“Huh,” Samantha said.
“What color do you want your shipsuit to be? You’ll have to wear it the whole time we’re out there except when you’re bathing. So, you might as well pick a color you like,” Catie said.
“You don’t want to establish a uniform?” Natalia asked. “It would be cool if we all were wearing the same colors.”
“Oh, good idea,” Samantha said. “What are the suits going to look like?”
“Just like a surfing suit, a snug fit all around.”
“Oh, then we could have a soft blue with the dark blue highlights.”
“We can be Spiderwoman!” the twins yelled.
“I was thinking something more subtle,” Samantha said.
The twins booed and pouted for a bit.
“How about black with a blue chevron across the chest and blue stripes down the arm,” Samantha suggested.
“Sounds good. ADI, can you draw that up?”
“Yes, Cer Catie.”
“Hey, what’s with this Cer business?” Natalia asked.
“Cer is like sir or mister, but it’s gender-neutral,” Catie explained. “We decided to go with first names since three of us were McCormacks. It worked out for our call signs too, except we shortened mine to Cat.”
“That’s the same reason I go by Nattie,” Natalia said.
The women chatted while their shipsuits were being made. The twins wanted to know why Natalia had a buzz cut. They also worked around to asking about why her breasts were so big. They wondered if they would have big breasts like her. Natalia told them that big breasts were cool, but they were also a hassle. She explained that she wished hers were smaller so it would be easier to find clothes that fit and that her back wouldn’t get so tired holding them up.
Finally, their suits were ready.
“Oh, I like them,” Samantha said. “Of course, I’m not sure if I’m going to like them as much when I have it on.”
Everyone slipped into their shipsuits.
“How do you zip these things up?”
“It’s like a Ziploc bag,” Catie explained. “Just press together from the bottom up.”
Catie helped the twins zip their suits up while the others took care of their own.
“Hey, I thought these were pressure suits,” Liz said. “They’re kind of loose, aren’t they?”
Catie walked over and rotated a small disk on Liz’s suit. The suit shrank, tightening up until it was completely form-fitting.
“Um, that’s snug,” Liz said.
“Yeah, like wearing support hose for your whole body,” Catie said. “The disk provides a small charge that makes the suit more stretchy and looser. It’ll loosen up when you turn it back on so you can take your suit off. To turn it off, rotate it counterclockwise, on is clockwise. There’s a separate one for the hood, so you don’t have to wear it all the time. Just slip it over your head before you put your helmet on. The helmet automatically disengages the disk. You’ll have to turn it on yourself to get the hood off.”
“Well, don’t you look all tight and sexy,” Samantha said to Liz.
Liz walked over and turned Samantha’s disk off. “Let’s see how you look all skintight and compressed like a ….”
“Hey, you didn’t let me adjust things,” Samantha complained. “A bit snug down there.”
Liz laughed. “Well, Ms. Sexy, what do you think?”
Samantha looked at herself in the mirror. “Not as bad as I feared. This will definitely motivate me to skip dessert once in a while.”
Natalia was working quickly to adjust her suit before someone came over and turned her disk off. When she thought she had everything arranged correctly, she twisted it herself. The suit shrank, compressing around her. “Hey, I think I can eat a few more desserts,” she said as she admired herself in the mirror.
“Wow, it does look good on you,” Samantha said. “I guess it’s like a body girdle. So, we don’t have to starve ourselves worrying about how the men will see us.”
“I don’t think so,” Natalia said. “I’m thinking I’ll start wearing this thing all the time.”
Everyone laughed, and Catie twisted her disk. She rotated her shoulders to get the suit to settle in. “I don’t have any problems,” she said while pointing to her flat chest.
“Hey, count your blessings,” Natalia said. “The only thing better than getting my leg back was getting Dr. Metra’s nanites for my ovaries. I love not worrying about a period, and my friends love that I don’t have mood swings.”
“Yeah, but...”
“They’ll come,” Samantha said. “Just be patient and enjoy being young.”
“H
ey, what about us!” twins yelled.
Catie walked over and twisted their disks. They squealed as the suit tightened around their bodies. “This is neat,” they said together.
“They definitely fit the suits,” Liz said. “Better than I do. She did a few poses in the mirror to see how she looked from different angles.”
“You look just fine from behind,” Natalia said. “You’re going to be drawing the men like flies to honey.”
They all giggled at that. “Okay, what’s next?”
“We need to try out our exosuits,” Catie said.
“Exosuits?”
“When we go outside the ship, we want a bit of armor to protect us against any stray meteorites. The exosuit is just a thin set of armor to slip over the suit. Like what you’d wear to play football.”
“Hey, what are these?” the twins asked, pointing to a small tube that was in a pocket on the inside of their legs.
“Those are drain tubes,” Catie said.
“For what?”
“You know that soft part on the inside of your suit that was like panties,” Catie explained.
“Yes.”
“Well, if you can’t hold it, then it absorbs your wee so you can keep working outside. Then your exosuit will pull it out and store it in a small bottle.”
“You mean you wee in your panties?!”
“If you have to. You can’t just run back inside the ship every time you have to go.”
“Gross.”
“That’s what all the astronauts do. It won’t be that bad, you won’t even notice. The lining is designed to keep you dry, and it all gets pulled out and stored.”
“Why do we save it? Why not just push it out into space? There’s nothing out there, anyway,” the twins said.
Catie was laughing so hard and trying not to show it that she couldn’t answer. Natalia knelt down and looked the twins in the eye. “Because when I’m out there working, I don’t want any wee bouncing off of my helmet.”
The twins really giggled. “What happens if you have to do number two?”
“Well, that’s not so nice, but the same thing happens,” Catie said. “The suit pulls all the moisture out, and when you get back inside, you go and clean up. I suggest you try and hold it if you can.”
