The Orphan in Near-Space (The Space Orphan Book 2)

by Laer Carroll

  "Well, doesn't look like you've had another growth spurt, Boss."

  Riku spoke in a fake-quiet aside to Nicole.

  "I think she's put on weight. You think so?"

  Nicole gave that a sardonic eyebrow lift but said nothing to him. She did speak to Jane.

  "Sure you don't want to spice up the design a little, Captain? I mean, plain gold is so last year. So bo-ring."

  Jane ignored the byplay. She did some stretches, twists, and bends to test the flexibility of the suit. To the technician who'd followed her from the dressing room she spoke.

  "Feels good, Bethany. I like the new elbow, knee, and waist material. Looks strong but bends easily."

  The woman nodded. "We put a lot of research in that, Captain. It was one of the top requests for improvements we got."

  "Well, you succeeded admirably. I'll go switch back into my clothing. We'll be back Thursday to suit up again for our flight."

  "I'll help you change, Sir."

  <>

  "They get bigger every year," Klaus said to Jane as their bus, one of three, ferried them to the spaceship which would take them up to the World Space Station. Ahead of them on the concrete was the ship with a boarding elevator which would loft the passengers the ten feet up to the door into the vehicle.

  "I see," said Riku, "that this one has floater landing gear in addition to the wheels."

  A few minutes later when they entered the body of the spaceship Jane slipped into cyborg communion with the ship. SHE expanded HER awareness into all parts of it, then into its several connections to, among other entities, air traffic control. A few thousand milliseconds were enough for HER to be sure all systems--including the people at the core of each--were operating well.

  Meanwhile HER organic part was walking to HER seat and sitting in it. Jane came fully back to that part, buckled the X-shaped safety belts into place, and jacked her spacesuit into the vehicle's air and power supply lines.

  A half hour later the shuttle lifted on its floater legs, retracted its wheeled landing gear, and moved to its takeoff pad. Minutes later it was moving down the runway and lifting into the air.

  <>

  It was nearly a two-hour trip to the World Space Station. As they came near it an image of the station appeared on the TV screens on each seat back and on a screen on the wall in front of the front row of seats. It showed the Station seeming to come toward them. It was spinning though the spin seemed to slow as the spaceplane began to spin to match that of the station.

  "Wow," said Riku. The crew was sitting together in one of the four-across rows of the passenger section of the ship. "Business must be really good. Now they have four cans. Klaus, do you know if the two new ones are fully operational?"

  Klaus was their civil engineer and specialized in space habitats.

  "Yep. One's vacation oriented, the other business oriented, mostly, instead of being evenly split like the older ones."

  As before when visiting the station they waited for all the other passengers to leave the spaceplane. And as before they were met by someone in the free-fall passenger debarking area.

  The young man said to Jane, "Welcome back, Captain. I'm here to see you to your quarters. The Manager hopes you'll be pleased by them, and forgive him for switching you to a suite instead of the business-class rooms you requested. Notice of your arrival came too late to contact you."

  Jane smiled at the earnest young man who looked no older than a teenager though he was surely in his early twenties.

  "Of course we're happy to have more space. What happens to our luggage?"

  "The robots have that well in hand. Now if you'll come this way."

  They swam/walked to an elevator which took them "up" to Can C where their suite was located. On their way Klaus pointed out a few small changes to the elevator and the hallway they traversed. Riku summed them up.

  "More attention to detail. More luxury. The Station has to be really doing well financially."

  "I wouldn't say that exactly," said their escort. "But we're making a solid profit and getting more reservations, and for longer, all the time. Much of it because of you, Captain, and your air and space propulsion systems. Air travel is cheaper and safer all the time."

  Jane nodded but said nothing. She'd gone to cyborg mode as soon as she'd entered the station. Much of HER attention was directed to feeling out how well HER new mechanical body was faring. Happily it was doing well. SHE only had to send out a few dozen commands or requests for improvements, mostly for fine-tuning parts of HERself. SHE felt some of them being satisfied immediately, while some others would take months to complete.

  Before he left their escort passed on the Manager's invitation to join him for dinner at 7:00. Jane accepted.

  It was a little after 4:00 Station time. They changed out of their spacesuits and inspected their quarters. Nicole expressed her approval of how much extra space and luxury the suite gave them.

  As almost everyone who went to space did they wore their form-fitting spacesuit liners except to formal occasions. This was the first time Jane had seen the other's wear. She was in her usual plain all-over gold. Kate was in silver and blue, Klaus in orange and black, Nicole in blue and gold, and Riku in a wild riot of colors like some abstract art. Klaus kidded him that he looked like a screen saver.

  They inspected the part of the suite set aside as a work area. There they'd remotely control the two space sleds on which the hyperspace communicators would be mounted. Riku, their main computer expert, highly approved of the quality of the heavy duty vears and data gloves provided. He reserved judgment on the comm facilities which would connect them to the sleds.

  That done they had time to settle in, relax a bit, and get ready for their dinner date with the WSS Manager.

  <>

  The guest cafeteria in the "B" Can had changed its design from faux Victorian English to what might be faux Twenties American. The design extended to the semiprivate room with its one open side into which they walked.

  Behind a U-shaped table sat the WSS Administrator, a tall handsome black man of sixty-something years with close-cut grey hair and the wiry physique of a basketball player.

  He rose and gestured them to sit to his right. They did so.

  "Captain Kuznetsov. Ladies and gentlemen. I was happy to hear you didn't mind the last minute move to a suite. Which you will not need to pay for. It's the least we could do for all the help you gave us installing space jets to stabilize the station in orbit."

  "Our pleasure, Administrator McIntosh. How have things been up here? We noticed that you'd added two new spokes to the wheel. Business is good, I take it?"

  "We're holding out own. If I may ask, why are you up here? Is there anything we can help you with?"

  "We're here to test some improved communication devices. But until we get into the work we won't know if--or how badly, is more likely!--we've screwed up. We'll be sure to take you up on your offer of help if we need to."

  Riku, seated to the far right and so further forward in the curve of the U base of the table, spoke to the Administrator. "I noticed the new décor. I love it. Was it much trouble to put in?"

  "No. This area was designed to make it easy to swap in and out the décor. It's an important part of morale building, keeping our surroundings fresh and changing. Stick around a few more months and we'll add Autumn Harvest decorations.

  "And speaking of changes, here are another group of our guests."

  The Administrator stood and gestured in several people and made introductions between them and the Space Force group. Soon conversations turned general, even more so when other invitees joined the table.

  <>

  The next morning the Space Force group went to work. Jane, with Klaus and Riku carrying a case containing the core part of a hyperspace communicator, led the way to a room at the free-fall center of the station. It was one of several construction and repair facilities.

  Meeting them was a representative of a company with a base in the WSS
which specialized in space engineering. They'd constructed the two runabouts from parts shipped up to the station. Klaus checked the skeletal vehicles over and pronounced them ready to deploy. Jane unlocked the two cases and Klaus, with Riku's help, installed the communicators.

  The comms powered up on command and ran the diagnostics which Riku had designed and installed in them. This was a repeat of what he'd down a few days before on Earth, but necessary to insure nothing had been damaged by their trip into space and the zero-g environment.

  The hyperspace mode was the only function not run. Jane wanted the devices to be far away when that happened. The disaster on the Moon had underscored the danger of testing new technology.

  By noontime it was time to begin the tests. With the help of station personnel who were experienced in launching vehicles the two space runabouts were transferred to vacuum and sent on their way. The Gang then went back to their suite to monitor and control the runabouts.

  They fed on takeout and chatted for two hours as the test vehicles flew in two eccentric orbits. One went below the WSS orbit, the other went high.

  At 3:01 local time Nicole commanded one runabout to send the first text message: "Hello. Would you join me for tea and crumbles?"

  Riku, commanding the other runabout, read the message and turned to Jane.

  "Captain Kuznetsov, message received. At exactly the moment it was sent. No detectable lag time."

  "Yes!" said Klaus. The other crew members grinned along with him.

  Jane smiled but said to Riku, "Send an answer, Lieutenant."

  Riku sent the canned text: "Said the Walrus, I'll be happy to join you for a feast."

  Nicole read the message and grinned. "Perfect. No lag time."

  This time the joy became physical, as Klaus clapped Riku on the back and he gave Klaus a half-hug with his free arm. Nicole grabbed both of them in a hug and began jumping up and down. Kate abandoned her solemn Exec-like expression and joined in. In one-sixth Earth gravity the heights they reached threatened the suite's ceiling.

  As they settled their gaze turned onto Jane. They approached her and, despite her laughing protests, gave her a big group hug. She submitted with a grin but then fended them off.

  "Back to work, you scurvy dogs!" she said with a Riku-esque demand.

  <>

  They worked for two weeks more, sending text, voice, and video messages of greater and greater lengths. They sent the runabouts further and further apart, the furthest being very-low orbits for one and as high as the beginning of the lower radiation belt and on opposite sides of the Earth. The planet was no barrier to the transmissions.

  Finally they sent the runabouts into the atmosphere to burn up. The report they sent to the Space Force was classified Top Secret Orange, a code for the most secret classification of technical advances.

  However, the practical applications of instant and possibly untappable communications made their discoveries too important to keep secret long. The technical details remained classified though the results were not. Soon hyperspace communication was being added to deep-space probes. And to vessels which would travel further than cislunar space, the first being the asteroid-exploration vehicle.

  Meanwhile Jane and her crew were busy on other jobs.

  <>

  EXCERPT from Entertainment Channel 17 - All the News all the Time

  "Dr. Wellesley, thank you for talking to us today."

  "You're very welcome."

  "I've heard that Captain Jane Kuznetsov is being considered for a Nobel Prize in physics for her contribution to the Omniverse theory, specifically for the proof that hyperspace exists. Just what is this theory? I'm not sure I understand."

  "We in the business call it a hypothesis rather than a theory. Theory suggests a detailed set of interconnecting ideas rather than a loose set of speculations."

  "So what is this HYPOTHESIS?"

  "Basically that there are many universes beside our own. One guess is that there are some three billion of them. Not an infinite number as some scientific fiction tales assume."

  "And what is Kuznetsov's part in this?"

  "Kuznetsov hypothesizes that there are seven kinds of hyperspace, one of them accessible to technical manipulation. The technical manipulation part has proven to be true. As for the rest of it...?"

  He shrugged.

  "I understand that Kuznetsov's hyperspace theories are looked down upon because they presuppose the possibility of travel faster than the speed of light. But hasn't she proved it is possible?"

  "She has shown that electromagnetic radiation can move FTL, a popular term meaning faster than light. Not that objects could."

  "Just how fast?"

  "We don't know. The second Asteroid Exploration spacecraft has been operating in the Asteroid Belt for a month now. Their communications are so far showing speeds of more than a thousand times FTL. Though certainly not infinite. That would suggest a complete breakdown of modern physics, of total Lewis Carroll madness."

  The darkly handsome host of the show smiled.

  "Didn't Kuznetsov and her crew use quotes from the Alice in Wonderland author to test their hyperspace communicator?"

  The dour scientist smiled for the first time. "So they did. Perhaps our young genius knows more than she's telling!"

  END EXCERPT

  Chapter 17 - Dragon

  ==============================================

  TO: Mom, Pop, Natalie,

  SUBJ: My absence

  ____________________________________________________

  I have been kidnapped.

  Don't worry. I've been hoping for this event for a long time and have made plans to handle it. Witness the fact that you are receiving this message even though I am on a plane on its way to a military airport near Guangzhou.

  I have electronically infiltrated and have been keeping tabs on several spy and action groups stationed near JPL. The one I'd most hoped to kidnap me, and has, is commanded from the Chinese splinter "empire" which is the most radical. They are the southeast third of the three. Look it up if you're not familiar with it.

  They think I am at their mercy and believe I am ready to and will cooperate with them to enhance their position in the world. You may or may not hear rumors to that effect. Or not. I'm guessing they will want to deliver a fait accompli when this action is done, so maybe not. We'll see.

  They should have taken the lesson of the Trojan horse to heart. Tough. Too late for them now.

  Mom, Pop, please use my spare keys and retrieve my car from the street outside my favorite little grocery store. Kate, there are sealed orders in the office safe to give you authority and relevant info to manage things in my absence. It is likely to be at least a year. Try not to worry. Keep the faith and stay safe.

  My love to you all.

  ==============================================

  <>

  Jane parked near her favorite grocery store, a little Mom and Pop run by a Vietnamese couple near CalTech. Before she could leave her car a white SUV with darkened rear windows pulled up beside her car facing the opposite way. This put its driver-side window near her window, open to the spring air.

  Through its open window a big Latino spoke--

  Robot joined Jane to become the cyborg JANE.

  "If you want to keep your mother alive you will come with us. Now!"

  JANE had finally learned to show emotion when SHE was in HER elevated state. SHE pretended to anxiety and got out of HER car, triggering the vehicle to Close and Lock with HER remote. HER driver-side window smoothly closed and the car settled into its secure state.

  The SUV door behind the driver opened and another Latino exited, a bear-like man. He took her remote and her attached keys from her along with her purse and tossed them to a third kidnapper, a white-as-white tall skinny man further inside the SUV.

  He pushed HER into the SUV. Or tried to. He was momentarily confused. JANE was already smoothly flowing into the vehicle and seating HERs
elf in the middle of the bench seat, snapping the seat belt across HER lap.

  It almost looked as if the woman WANTED to go with the three of them.

  No. No way. The girl looked scared. Surely she must be. She was half his size, a pretty blond with a slender build. He could break her neck with one hand.

  JANE was silent as the SUV pulled away from the street near the grocery and navigated local streets to get onto the freeway heading west. When it entered a crossing freeway and headed north SHE was sure it was headed to the Burbank International Airport.

  Such it proved to be. At a private gate entrance the driver presented an entry card to the guard at the gate. The gate slid open and they entered the airport. The SUV made its way to an executive jet sitting in a parking area. As it parked the jet's engines began to whine alive.

  The four got out of the SUV, two men on each side of Jane, who'd dropped out of her cyborg state, and led by the driver. Coming down a stair in the side of the jet were two Chinese. In the lead was a tall athletic looking man in a black business suit that had the cut of a uniform. Behind him was a slender woman in a similar suit. On the concrete she took the lead to join the kidnapper leader.

  "We got the bimbo. Give us the money," said the leader.

  The woman glanced at him and looked closely at Jane. She spoke.

  "We regret--"

  In one instant Jane was standing relaxed and calm. In the next she was pivoting to her right. Her arm whipped up and back. Her fist struck Whitey beside her in the gut, exploding him forward over his belly, his knees buckling. She leaned into the space vacated by his body. Her left leg swung up and folded and unfolded in a kick to the bear-like Latino's ribs beside her, flinging him several feet to the side. Her kicking leg landed. It provided a pivot for Jane's right leg, already lifting. Her foot struck the kidnap leader almost delicately on the back of his head. He fell forward, too limp to keep his face from striking the concrete.

  Then Jane was standing relaxed looking at the two from the plane. She spoke calmly in Chinese to the man who had a pistol half drawn.

  "If you point that gun anywhere near my direction you will end up like them."