Version Innocent

by Pete Molina

Chapter 38

  Sam, Sam! It’s time for you to wake up! Ralphie attempted to rouse Sam when his sleep timer had elapsed. Sam began to stir back to consciousness, then remembered where he was. He opened his eyes, forgetting momentarily that he was camouflaged and took a look out of the window that was in front of his restraint chair. It was empty out there except for the small pinpoints of light. He swiveled around and saw the filtered and shaded image of the sun. It was still bright even if it were only a image.

  What’s our ETA to Hyatain, Ralphie?

  Approximately thirteen minutes. We have been braking for the last two and a quarter hours.

  They were almost there. Sam activated the external view again in his implants, searching the different camera angles to try and locate the station. He caught it when he looked from the aft cameras. One of the cameras on the bottom was shielded from the exhaust of the rocket engine, so he had a fairly clear view with only a little of the escaping plasma noticeable. They were still slowing to meet up with the station, which was growing larger in the viewer every moment. The station was huge, or at least part of it was huge. The antimatter station design had been around now for almost a hundred years, ever since the first Martians decided to go prospecting for the stuff.

  The antimatter station didn’t actually prospect. It made the antimatter in the old fashioned way, in a large particle collider. The collider was powered by a vast circular solar array one hundred and twenty kilometers in diameter. The solar array provided power measuring one thousand four hundred gigawatts per second which was directed to the production of the antimatter in the accelerators. It had been quite an engineering feat to design the current antimatter generator accelerators which boasted an efficiency of a five percent conversion of power into antimatter. This meant that the station produced around twenty five kilograms of antimatter every year, or six point seven grams per day. The station operated twenty-four hours a day year round.

  Hyatain was the very first station built at great expense by the Martians using both private and international funds. Normally one would want an antimatter solar collector to be much closer to the sun where the sunlight on every square meter of collector was much higher. If the collector had been located in Earth orbit, it would have produced almost three times the antimatter, but it was constructed close to Mars because it was easier to provide the labor and the materials. After Hyatain numerous other collectors had been manufactured. In recent years nanofacturing in Earth orbit turned out materials sufficient to build antimatter stations five times the size of Hyatain which were assembled closer to the orbit of Venus and produced almost a hundred kilograms each per year.

  The total antimatter production capability of the entire solar system was somewhere around two thousand kilograms of antimatter and growing constantly to support the new Fleet ships and their operations as well as the growing number of tourists and fast shipping options it provided, not to mention the ability to reach low Earth orbit with a reasonable single stage to orbit craft.

  Sam marveled at the size of the array. They were coming up almost edge on, but they saw little reflection because the array was always pointing directly at the sun so as not to waste any precious sunlight. The shuttle continued to approach, and then the Captain announced that they were going to cut thrust and drift in now and that the simulated gravity would be back on momentarily. After a moment the feeling of weight from the constant acceleration of the engines cut out and they were in free fall for only a second before the indicator light turned on and they had that simulated gravity sensation settle over them. It made Sam a little queasy during the transition.

  They were now passing behind the edge of the mammoth array, and the sun disappeared from the view ports. They drifted past the array which was supported by what looked like a large tinker toy structure behind the actual solar panels. Each of the cells the structure formed was a hundred meters across, and they blurred by at amazing speed. It gave Sam some idea of how fast they were still going despite the fact that they had stopped thrusting.

  Sam asked Ralphie about their current speed, and he replied that they were only moving at five hundred meters per second, not very fast at all.

  It’s true what all pilots say; It feels much faster when you’re close to the ground, or the wall in this case, Sam thought.

  They were quickly approaching the habitation section of the station, a small cylinder that stuck out from the very center of the back side of the array. Sam could make out a smaller bulb at the end of the cylinder that must have been the antimatter generators.

  They approached quickly. Soon the habitation section, which now seemed very large, was coming up fast.

  “We’re going to be going into final deceleration and will then be docking. Passengers disembarking here are asked to stay in their seats until the ship comes to a complete stop with us docked. I will keep the simulated gravity on at all times,” the Captain announced.

  Shortly thereafter Sam felt a subtle pressure as they thrusted enough to kill their velocity. They drifted in more slowly, now towards the section that connected the habitation cylinder with the array structure.

  The habitation cylinder, Sam noted, was actually rotating slowly using centrifugal forces to mimic gravity in the interior. He could tell now that the cylinder was actually quite large. They came to a stop next to the giant rotating cylinder on a smaller cylindrical section between them and the array where a number of docking shafts poked outward.

  It took a minute for them to come to a rest and to dock with one of the shafts.

  “Welcome to Hyatain Station. For those of you who are disembarking here, please proceed down the main lift shaft and out through the docking port. We’re pleased to have had you with us. Have a pleasant day. For those of you traveling onto the other stations, please stay seated. We’ll be departing just as soon as we pick up any new passengers. Thank you,” the Captain announced.

  Sam took it as his cue to get out of his seat. He walked into the main lift shaft and dropped downward to the deck with the docking port. There were only about fifteen others getting off with Sam, and they all waited patiently as the passengers made their way one at a time through the zero g docking shaft.

  Finally Sam’s turn came, and he pushed off gently and floated down the shaft. When he came out the other end, he was in a large room. People were floating to the side of the portal back to the ship, and all the arrivals were moving towards the far side of the room. As soon as everyone was off, the other group started to float towards the ship and proceed up the tube. Once they were gone, someone floated up in front of Sam and the others.

  “Welcome to Hyatain,” the woman in a uniform spoke up. “Every one with a permanent clearance may proceed through the exit. Every one else I will need to see in turn to get you you'r access for the time you’re on board,” she continued. Most of the people except Sam and one other man started for the doorway. Each of them stopped and placed their hand on a plate to be scanned, and then the door let them pass.

  “Well, welcome visitors. I have both of your identities on file as a visitor. Mr. Olvag, you’re already cleared to enter with the system, but please access the briefing on the station before you go wandering around. Have your companion bring up a guide to take you whereever you’re going. Mr. Locke, I just need to have you go through our security station right over there,” she pointed.

  Luckily, Terra had already arranged everything for Sam. He was pretending to be Mr. Olvag, and he walked calmly towards the door the others had gone through. He placed his hand on the plate and after only a moment of wondering whether this camouflage technology was up to impersonating someone else’s biometrics, the door opened and he stepped through with a sigh. He was in.

  He had Ralphie do just what the woman had told him to and a green virtual track appeared which he began to follow. After only a few minutes he found the location of the elevators that would lower him to the outer edge of the ro
tating cylinder. The elevator was large enough to accommodate about twenty people, but near the entrance he had seen a giant cargo elevator that looked like it could move an army. It was probably just used to move equipment and materials down in to the habitat. There was also another smaller elevator which had departed probably minutes before Sam arrived.

  Officially Sam, or Mr. Olvag who he impersonated, was a antimatter safety inspector. Terra had used her connections on Mars to arrange for him to meet with Conrad regarding an inspection that was to occur next month. It was true that there was to be an inspection next month and that Mr. Olvag would be the one performing it, but Olvag didn’t have any plans to go there to discuss it since the inspections were fairly routine. Olvag was a friend of Terra’s that she had made years ago as the head of the Mars Department of Industry. He agreed to do her a personal favor and just stay at home for a much needed day off. Terra had told them that they could trust Olvag to keep quiet, but that she wouldn’t let him in on anything that was really happening.

  The elevator began to lower, and as it did, Sam felt him self growing heavier until it stopped and he felt like he was back in the one third-g of Mars. The doors opened and Sam stepped out to see a dark cylinder with small pinpricks of light spread around the cylinder, perhaps imitating stars. The green path glowed in his vision, and he began to walk out down a concrete path through some vegetation. Sam followed the path through the dark until he saw the light silhouette of buildings ahead. He must have come down in some kind of small park in the center of town. The path seemed wide enough to permit vehicles to travel on.

  The path ended shortly and he found himself between two buildings. It was hard for him to get any perspective about how big the habitat cylinder really was, but he continued to follow the green path to a third building that was twenty or thirty meters past the first two. All though the building wasn’t too tall, only two stories, Sam could see that it sprawled out from his location. He went up to the entrance indicated by the green path and went inside.

  That it was night time on the station was now obvious to Sam. Evidently the population had elected to maintain either a Mars or Earth day/night system to keep themselves in equilibrium. He found his way up a stairwell into a corridor that had a number of doors lining each wall, probably apartments of some kind. He walked along the corridor until he came to number 231. Sam had Ralphie interface with the computer system and send an arrival notification to Conrad, whom Sam hoped wasn’t sleeping. Nothing stirred for a few minutes, and then finally the door opened to reveal a tall man who didn’t look like he’d been sleeping. Rather, he was well dressed and wide awake.

  “Mr. Olvag, you’re right on time,” Thurman Conrad said with a smile, taking Sam’s hand. Sam felt a little guilty at the deception but shook his hand anyway. “Won’t you come in? I was just getting ready to head over to the generators.”

  Sam walked into the residence and stood in the living room. “Thank you, Mr. Conrad, for seeing me on such short notice, I really do appreciate it,” Sam said in the camouflage’s version of his voice.

  “Any time, for the inspectors,” Thurman said cordially while closing the door. “Have a seat. I’ll be ready to head out in just a moment.”

  Sam took a seat on the couch. The apartment was furnished nicely with interesting looking baubles that probably had originated around the solar system. Conrad went from the main room into what Sam could see was the kitchen and then after a moment returned.

  “All right, let’s get going then, if that’s alright with you. Shift three starts in about twenty minutes,” Conrad informed him.

  Sam got back up and followed the man out the front door. Sam wanted to ask about the habitat, when it would be getting light, and a number of other questions that his view upon arrival had brought up in his mind, but he kept silent.

  Olvag had been on the station a number of times and wouldn’t have needed to ask about that kind of thing. Sam needed to keep in character until he could get Conrad alone out in the generation section. Terra had provided Ralphie with the security system schematics so Sam knew where he would be able to speak with Conrad unobserved. They made their way down the corridor and the stairs to the first level out into the habitat.

  “Sun will be up soon,” Conrad remarked. “Did you have a good flight?”

  “About the usual.” Sam hoped he actually sounded like Olvag.

  They walked down the path a ways, past where Sam had joined up with it from the elevator. They walked for what seemed like ten minutes, always heading away from the side of the habitation cylinder that mated up with the solar collectors. When they reached the far side of the Hab module, which Sam now figured was about a kilometer across, they found another elevator. Conrad stepped into it along with several others who had been waiting when they arrived. Sam followed him in and after a few more stragglers made it in, the elevator started its ascent.

  It didn’t take long for the rotationally induced artificial gravity to dissipate, and they were once again in zero-g when doors opened. Conrad kicked off the wall out into the large tunnel corridor that went into the generator section. Sam kicked off as well and followed him, running into the wall of the tunnel and then righting himself to continue after Conrad who was already floating down the tunnel. When they reached the end of the tunnel, Sam felt himself pulled to the floor. That queasy sensation returned.

  Simulated gravity. At least I’ll be able to walk now, Sam thought.

  “This way, Mr. Olvag,” Conrad directed, leading him off down some stairs.

  The rest of the workers who had been with them headed off in different directions. Sam followed Conrad. He kept up a display of where they were located and had Ralphie let him know when they weren’t under the eye of the surveillance system. The antimatter station was fairly secure, and it had a number of defensive weapons that had been installed ad hoc after the station was complete and after the first few incidents with pirates from out in the belts.

  Antimatter was valuable dangerous stuff, and the Fleet along with all other governments wanted it safe. As a last resort to keep the stuff from falling into the wrong hands, the entire store of antimatter that was currently in the station’s storage tank could be fired into space and annihilated. The resulting explosion would no doubt be catastrophic to the station, but theoretically they would survive.

  They walked through several corridors and down more stairs as they headed outward towards the very end of the section. Sam could hear the hum of the accelerators as they ceaselessly used high speed particles to produce their product. Sam was grateful that he had the map in his displays; otherwise he would have become completely disoriented by now. Finally, they entered a section that Ralphie informed him was out of the watchful eye of the security system.

  It was then that Conrad spun about with a pistol in his hand, he leveled it at Sam’s chest. “All right, who are you? I know you’re not Olvag!”

  Sam stopped dead and put his hands in the air. “I’m a friend. How’d you know?”

  “Olvag doesn’t do surprise inspections, and you didn’t ask me once about my father, which he always does. You didn’t even blink when I told you it was almost morning, which you would have known wasn’t right because shift three starts at one in the morning.” Conrad kept the gun steady. “You say you’re a friend. Then why don’t you tell me who you are? And what’s happened to Olvag?”

  “Olvag is taking the day off as a personal favor to Terra Gates.”

  “And you?” Conrad asked seriously.

  “I’m going to deactivate my camouflage, so if I look like I’m moving, I guarantee you I’m not.”

  “All right, but any funny business and I’ll fire. The gun won’t make much noise and no one will come to help you here,” Conrad warned.

  Sam had Ralphie deactivate the camouflage, and he watched Conrad’s face grow even more suspicious.

  “Who sent you because I know you’re no
t the man you look like now?”

  “No, I’m not him exactly. I am a very out-of-date version of him,” Sam explained.

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “You can scan my DNA or check my prints or whatever you want to do to verify it,” Sam said. “I won’t resist.”

  “I’ll do that.” Conrad motioned him with the gun to continue through a doorway that was off to their right.

  Sam moved slowly into the room. Inside he saw a screen and a terminal that had a biometric interface.

  “Lucky for you that I have one of these systems in my office, and I know there isn’t a camera,” Conrad said, motioning him towards the terminal. The terminal sprang to life, the display lighting up with systems information from the generator. “I’m going to have the terminal start a biometric identity search on you, but for now I’ve disabled the report back mechanism so no one will know you’re here, yet.”

  “I’m grateful for that,” Sam said, placing his hand on the pad that was next to the terminal. The pad scanned his palm print and also made a sample of his DNA from any loose flake of his skin it could get. The results flashed up on the screen after only a few seconds.

  “It doesn’t say you’re who you look like.”

  “Wait, you need to actually compare the DNA sequence. It will only be off by a versioning difference.” Sam hoped he’d get Conrad to believe him before he pulled the trigger. After what Conrad had helped his other version do, Sam was sure he’d use the gun if he thought he was found out.

  “I’m having my companion run the comparison right now, and if it’s wrong, I’m going to shoot you and get rid of your body in one of our fusion chambers…I’ve done it before and believe me there will be nothing left of you but plasma,” Conrad threatened.

  He was sweating now under the stress. Sam tried to stay calm. It didn’t sound like a pleasant way to go at all, and he didn’t want to provoke a premature reaction.

  “Well, I’ll be damned. How the hell did you get restored and how did you get yourself a legitimate new identity? That’s not supposed to be possible,” Conrad said, lowering the weapon, relief covering his face. He sat down in one of the chairs that was in the office.

  Sam sighed. “It’s a long story, actually.”

  “I’m all ears,” Conrad said, sitting back, but he hadn’t put the gun away yet and Sam eyed it suspiciously. Conrad noticed his apprehension. “Let’s just say that I’m keeping it out for insurance.”

  “Good policy,” Sam admitted. “Well, it all started for me about a week ago,” he started. He told the entire story to Conrad, only leaving out details that would give away secrets of Terra’s and some of their suspicions about what Sam was really up to. He didn’t mention the antimatter until the end, at which point Conrad’s hand tightened about the gun.

  “So you see, Terra, Jeff, and I have basically been summoned by my counterpart who is hiding out with a large amount of antimatter. We were told that you could help us by Terra’s old version. Can you?”

  “That is the most convoluted story I’ve ever heard, but I’ve been expecting someone to show up ever since I heard about the Virus attack and that your other version had taken responsibility. I met him about eight years ago when we worked out how to get the antimatter out of here undetected, and he told me then that in between six and ten years from now someone would come to me to ask where he was and that I’d know them. He wanted me to help you as much as I could. I guess this fits” Conrad made a quick motion and the gun disappeared.

  “Well, at least you were expecting someone.”

  “Yeah, but I always figured that it’d either be the right person or someone who found out coming to arrest me, or get rid of me, so that’s why I’ve been carrying that gun for the last three years. I can’t believe you’re actually here now.”

  “Can you tell me where to find him?” Sam asked, hoping that the man knew something that would give them a place to start looking.

  “No, actually I don’t know where he is either. Let me explain what I do know. When your other version came to me eight years ago along with Terra Gates and we set this whole thing up, the biggest problem was how to get the antimatter to him. What we used was a little unconventional but it’s been working fine now for a while. There’s a solar sail cargo lane that runs from high Earth orbit to Europa. During that trip it passes close enough for me to take one of our smaller intra station shuttles and meet up with it as it passes by once every six months. Even though it’s moving pretty fast, I can get a small payload up to speed to latch onto the cargo container magnetically. Because the amount of antimatter is small, it will go undetected.

  Once it reaches Europa, somehow your other version gets it and does whatever he does with it. There are about eight of the sails on that lane, so over the last eight years I’ve managed to get him a hundred and three kilograms of the stuff.”

  “I have one person who’s in on it at each of the stations in this direction and a few that go out the other direction from Mars. All together we’ve managed to get him the entire amount. Terra has already paid us well and promised us recognition if possible. After you showed up was when we were all supposed to get the hell out of these stations and hide out some place secure.”

  “Well, that would make sense,” Sam said, thinking about it. “I’m sure it won’t be long before someone else catches on. Where will you go?”

  “I’m not at liberty to say,” Conrad said, “but some place Terra promised would be secure for a while.”

  “Where are we supposed to go then to find my other version…Europa?” Sam asked.

  “That would be my guess. Those solar sails are still ferrying cargo back and forth I’d find out who was handling it during the times we were sending. Someone out there must know where he is.”

  Sam just sat back now to relax a little. The tension was gone, and he wasn’t feeling threatened anymore.

  “I should contact my people on the other stations and let them know it’s time to go to ground. If I notify them in time they can be on the next transport back to Phobos,” Conrad said.

  “By all means,” Sam responded. Thurman sat back, closing his eyes, obviously accessing his displays and his companion using his link with the computer systems to send messages to his people. Sam waited patiently; he couldn’t leave to head back to Phobos until his transport made its way back, which wouldn’t be for another six hours or so. It took Conrad twenty minutes before he opened his eyes again.

  “Well that’s done. My people are going to take the first available transport back to Phobos. We’ll all meet up there and get to our hiding location. Hopefully, it won’t be too long before we’re able to leave it, but it’s for the best,” Conrad said.

  “Why the rush? What’s supposed to happen?” Sam asked. He wondered if Conrad was more in on what was going on than Terra or Jeff.

  “I don’t know exactly, but your other version told me that once you contacted me it wouldn’t be much longer before something happened. I don’t know what it will be, though. I just hope we can really trust him not to use it as a weapon, like he promised.”

  Sam wondered for the millionth time what his other version was up to. It had been bad enough with just the virus but now he had antimatter and uncontrolled nanotechnology…what was he up to? “Well, we have six hours until the transport returns. Can you arrange to be on it?”

  “I already have. I told my supervisor that my father back on Mars was sick and needed me to come at once, so he cleared me for a few days.”

  “Won’t anyone notice that a number of you are all leaving at once?” Sam asked, wondering if it might be too suspicious. He didn’t want to get caught because of suspicious activity out here.

  “Don’t worry. By the time any one catches on, it will all be over,” Conrad assured him.

  Sam hoped he was right. “So while we’re waiting, would it look better if you were showing me around, to make my pre
sence here look legitimate?”

  “Of course, you’re right. We can’t just sit around here for five hours. Have you ever been in an antimatter station before?” Thurman Conrad asked.

  “Not actually,” Sam confessed, “but we should make it seem as if I have.”

  “That impersonation technology you’ve got is pretty good. I never would have known if it weren’t for the way you were acting. We’ll need to keep you away from any others that might know you, but I’ll show you around anyway. How long can you sustain your illusion?”

  “Well, my power meter says I have enough to get back to Phobos easily, even if I keep it on constantly,” Sam informed him. “So you don’t need to worry about that.”

  “Good to hear. All right, so you know the theory of how the production works, don’t you?”

  “Yeah, you use particle accelerators to smash particles into some reaction material and from those collisions come a lot of stuff, some of which is antimatter. Then you siphon off the antimatter, slow it down, and condense the stuff into anti-hydrogen ice somehow,” Sam said. It was common knowledge. He’d just never seen the process in action.

  “Well, that pretty much sums it up,” Thurman said, sending an image to the display that showed a cross section of the station. “The collector generates electrical power which is transmitted through the central shaft of the station back to our section where it powers the accelerators.”

  “So, how do you get light into the habitat section? Is it artificial?” Sam wondered aloud. There would be an awful lot of power coursing through that central shaft.

  “No, that wouldn’t be very efficient. We have some fiber optic collectors that shunt some of the actual sunlight down the outer shell of the core shaft. It bounces around in there and will illuminate the entire habitat. That way we can grow plants easily and it’s much nicer. I’m going to miss it,” Thurman said a little sadly.

  “Will I be able to see the habitat in daylight then before we go?” Sam asked.

  “Yeah, the sun will be coming up just as we need to start heading for the transport. We could take one of the tubes through the central shaft to cut our time, but if you want we can go back through the hab,” Thurman offered.

  “Great. So you were saying all that power goes to the accelerators,” Sam reminded him.

  “Oh yeah, well, we have about fifty accelerator rings that are stacked like donuts. Each one shunts its anti-protons and positrons into our decelerators that siphon them off and slow them down. We send them through ten stages of deceleration until finally they’re at rest, and then we combine the positron and anti-proton streams to form anti-hydrogen. We do all this at five percent efficiency, which compared to the first particle accelerators designed to produce antimatter is a huge improvement; they got less than a half a percent.”

  “Then you have some kind of storage device for the anti-hydrogen?”

  “Yeah, the anti-hydrogen is really fairly sparse, so we condense it in a electromagnetic storage chamber which keeps it all in the center of the trap. There the free atoms coalesce into an anti-hydrogen ice. When the nodule gets big enough, about a kilogram, we pull the bottle and ship it back to Phobos.”

  “So how did you get the extra for my other version? Wouldn’t someone know it was missing?” Sam asked.

  “No, actually we have to allow for inspections about one month out of the year. During that time most of the staff leave and we get a bunch of UN people here. The inspection only takes a few days, and during that extra time we put on an empty bottle and by the time everyone returns we’ve got about a kilogram. Of course, we do have to trick out the computers so they don’t believe that there’s been any accumulation during that period, but the power from the array has to go somewhere at all times, even if it’s just being radiated away.”

  Sam wondered how much he was leaving out. It didn’t sound entirely convincing that it would work undetected as it had for so many years. “Amazing that everything worked out that way.”

  “Well, having Terra pull strings to get the inspections to precede the solar sail transport so that we could send the antimatter on helped a lot.”

  “I can imagine. So what would I be here to look at?” Sam asked.

  “Well, you were supposed to come out to check our control software for a bug and to check the storage chamber for signs of wear. That’s why I brought you here first; we’re out of the camera’s eye and you could have checked over the software. I’ll take you over to the chamber, and then I’ll show you around the whole system.” Sam got up.

  “You should put back on your persona,” Thurman reminded him.

  Sam felt a little embarrassed at having forgotten, but he had Ralphie reactivate his camouflage system.

  “Amazing,” Conrad commented as he reverted back to looking like Olvag. “Follow me. We’ll have to go through a check point to get to the storage chamber, but since you’ve come this far we might as well go a little farther.”

  He led Sam back down the corridors, and they ended up on a walkway that went through a large space at the center of the circular accelerators. At the center of the space was a room where several large pipes met.

  “Only one of us can go through the door at a time. Go ahead,” Conrad instructed, ushering Sam up to the door of the small room.

  The room was a solid metal cube. The walkway went around the room and presumably met up on the other side. He stepped up to the door and put his hand on the plate. After a few seconds the light next to the palm panel turned green and the door opened. He stepped in a very small airlock type space; on the other side of the small space was another door. The first door closed behind him. As he approached the second door and plate, he put his hand on it. After a second it also opened. Sam was relieved. They’d had to get some samples of Olvag’s DNA to satisfy the security, and he had enough to last him until he was back on Mars if necessary. Past the second door Sam could see where the two pipes came together. The junction was actually donut shaped and in the center plugging the hole was what looked like a glass container with a handle on it.

  Conrad entered through the door and came up behind Sam who was bending down to look through the small glass port into the center.

  “That’s the storage bottle. When the accumulators get to a kilogram, we just pull the bottle out and the anti-hydrogen ice is suspended by magnetic fields in the center where it can take up to a thousand g’s without touching the walls of the container,” Conrad explained.

  “I imagine you’ll want to take a look at all angles to see if there is any sign of wear,” he coached. “We can’t be heard in here, but we are on video.”

  Sam tried to look like he was looking for micro cracks or the like, trying to stay in character and not look too fascinated by the pea-sized lump of blue slightly iridescent antimatter that he could see suspended at the center of the bottle.

  He wandered around to the opposite side and saw that the whole thing was symmetric; he could now see the other side of the bottle. He tried to look closely all around the apparatus like he was inspecting, but after twenty minutes of carefully checking out the whole assembly, he turned back to Conrad who was just waiting patiently. When he was done, he went back out the airlock double doors with Conrad following behind him. “Seems all right to me. I’ll finish my analysis based on my recordings later,” Sam said.

  “Of course,” Thurman Conrad said, as if it were routine.

  “Could you take me on a quick inspection of the rest of the units before I have to leave? I just want to make sure everything is kosher,” Sam continued.

  “Certainly, shall we start with accelerator one? It’s that way,” Conrad said, pointing down the walkway. Sam followed Conrad around the antimatter production section, gaping in awe at the size of the accelerators and the amount of power that they represented. It was an amazing facility, Sam had to admit. And it had been what really opened up the possibility of short trips about the solar sy
stem, ones that didn’t take months or years, just days or weeks. Finally four hours later they were finished and Conrad led him back through to the elevator that would take them back down to the hab surface.

  When the door to the elevator opened, Sam was greeted by bright sunshine all about. He stepped out into the habitat and stood gaping up at the immense space. Conrad quickly moved up behind him, taking his arm, and asked, “Are you feeling all right, Mr. Olvag? Here why don’t you have a seat for a moment?” Sam realized what he was doing right away. Olvag wouldn’t have had any problem with the view, as he had been in this and dozens of other similar habs for years. The only explanation would be that he wasn’t feeling well.

  “I’m fine. I just need to sit down for a moment. I think perhaps lunch didn’t agree with me,” Sam said, thinking quickly.

  Once he was sitting down and the majority of the people had left the elevator, he lifted his head which he had been holding in his hands and took another look around. It was disorienting, to say the least. Even Phobos station hadn’t been this disorienting probably because of the simulated gravity and the way it had been laid out. The hab stretched over him, but was cut in two by the central shaft that was far above him. The shaft was brilliantly lit. Conrad had explained, it piped sunlight into the hab via a fiber optic collection system. All around him in the open space were trees, lush green foliage with buildings spread around. There were even some smaller looking ponds. It was a nice place, he realized, that must in some way lure people out here.

  Sam wondered if the asteroid and orbital colonies were this nice. He imagined they must be even nicer because they weren’t constructed to support the staff of an antimatter station but to provide a permanent living space for large numbers of people and their whole society. Sam had Ralphie call up the dimensions of the hab. Ralphie informed him that the hab was three kilometers long and five hundred meters in diameter. This gave the station over two square miles of living area. The central shaft was fifty meters in diameter and only the outer shell carried the light from the outside. The rest was devoted to superconducting line that transferred power from the giant arrays to the antimatter generators and a few transport tubes for moving big equipment from the docking port to the generator section. The space was large but that wasn’t what disturbed Sam. He was used to that. It was the way the land curved around him.

  Sam took another couple of minutes to get his bearing and to marvel at the engineering of the place. Then he turned to Conrad. “I’m feeling better now. We’d better be on our way.” Conrad looked at him, concerned for a moment, and then shrugged.

  “Sure, let’s go. I’d like to swing by my apartment and pick up a few things if that’s all right with you.”

  “No problem. We’ve got an hour,” Sam agreed, checking his displays.

  He also checked the reading on his camouflage unit, but it had enough power to make it back to Mars easily. They both got up from the bench and started walking down the pathway. Now that Sam could see everything, he noticed that there were smaller residences, presumably private, for the more important people on the station. He could also see larger buildings, one of which was Conrad’s, that must house more the technical and service people. There were also other larger buildings that must serve as offices. Sam saw a library and two recreation centers as they made their way back to Conrad’s building which was closer to the docking port side of the hab.

  When they entered his apartment, Conrad went straight to grabbing some of the stuff off his shelves and stuffing it into some small suitcases he’d had in one of his closets. He didn’t bother packing any clothing. It took him anther thirty minutes to get everything together and he handed one of the suitcases to Sam. “Can you hold this for me? It will look less suspicious if I’m not seen carrying too much stuff for a short trip to Mars.”

  “Sure,” Sam said, taking the suitcase. “I just hope we don’t get Mr. Olvag in too much trouble over this.”

  “Oh, I’m sure he has an alibi for all this. But I don’t envy the security people who are going to have to try to figure this out. No, not one bit. Let's get going, I don't want to miss that transport,” Conrad added, taking one last look around.

  Sam moved for the door. “Ready,”

  “Yeah,” Conrad said. “You know, I’ve been in this apartment for twelve years now. I’m actually going to miss it.”

  “I know what you mean,” Sam said, thinking about his crèche home. It was the only place he’d lived in for anywhere near that amount of time, and just thinking about it brought back fond memories. He suppressed that reminiscence for a later time and opened the door.

  They made it to the docking terminal where the transport would be arriving in minutes. There were about ten people waiting with them. Sam looked them over and wondered if any of them were with Conrad, but if they were, they never gave him any hint. The transport docked a few minutes later and they boarded. No one got off. The transport was the same ship Sam had taken earlier. The transport just flew out and stopped at every station, then turned around and came back, only stopping if there were passengers to pick up. Sam put Conrad’s suitcase in the webbing provided on the first deck and then went up the lift tube back to where he’d been sitting before. Conrad followed him and sat in the next seat over. They departed after everyone was onboard and began thrusting for Phobos.

  Both he and Conrad tried to sleep during the flight, but Sam only succeeded at keeping his eyes closed and relaxing. He was worried and excited at the same time. He didn’t know if the Fleet or some other security would be waiting to pick him and Conrad up when they docked at Phobos station. How long would it take for someone to put everything together? Sam was also worried about how Terra, Jeff and he were going to get out of here without being followed, even presuming that whatever source of information the Fleet had been using against them had been outwitted.

  Conrad apparently didn’t have the same problem. As soon as they departed and were under thrust, he was out like a light. Sam marveled at his ability to sleep at a time like this. Sam knew he was in trouble, but so far he hadn’t done anything serious; only his other version had. Thurman Conrad had given a hundred kilograms of antimatter to a known terrorist, however; he should be terrified of getting caught. Of course, Conrad had been doing this for the past eight years, during which time he had apparently come to term with his actions and was not any more afraid now that he’d be caught than at any other time. He was probably even relieved.

  Five hours later the transport was docking, and Sam woke Conrad up. “We’ve arrived,” he said.

  Conrad stretched his arms. “Oh, we made good time, I can’t wait to get to the surface. I’m dying for a Tofu dog.”

  “Hah,” Sam exclaimed in amusement. He thought it was pretty funny that Conrad was thinking about food, and then realized that he was only staying in character for appearances. They both hopped into the lift tube and picked up Conrad’s bags. They then made their way down the shaft into the spine. When they entered the spine and were just walking away from the terminal, two people walked up to them. Sam didn’t recognize them at all, but they were good sized guys, and Sam was now sure that they’d been caught. Conrad didn’t notice them until they caught up and each of them grabbed a shoulder.

  “You need to come with us, please,” one man said.

  “Oh, and why exactly do we need to do that?” Conrad asked, realizing that they were in trouble.

  “Just don’t give us any trouble,” the man said. “We have fifty other guys here with orders to shoot first if you move. Just follow us and everything will be fine. Don’t bother looking for them. You’ll never spot who they are.”

  “Yeah, Ralphie. We don’t want you falling off any buildings,” the other man said.

  Sam looked at him closely. The name Ralphie and the reference to his accident when he was young let Sam know who they were. There weren’t fifty other guys. It was just Jeff and T
erra in disguise.

  “I think we’d better go with them,” Sam told Conrad with a wink that he hoped no surveillance system would pick up.

  “All right, I have nothing to hide here,” Conrad said.

  They started walking. Terra and Jeff kept close to them and once they entered the main ring they moved quickly into the transport tube.

  “We’ll be going to Spine Two,” one of the two said.

  “Sure,” Sam said, giving Ralphie orders to go to Spine Two.

  The trip was brief, and they came out just near the entrance of Spine Two. They went upward into the spine and walked out until they came to docking shaft ten which was at the end of the spine. There were almost no people this far in. Terra and Jeff got them through the shaft, and they entered a cargo bay that was a familiar welcome sight to Sam. It was the Express. Once they were all inside, the docking hatch closed.

  Quickly descending from the crew compartment above was Ignus Scott. “Welcome abroad The Lady Sky, gentlemen,” Ignus said with a smile.

  “Not the Express?” Sam asked.

  “Not for the moment,” Ignus replied.

  Terra and Jeff moved away from them and deactivated their camouflage, revealing both of them wearing their space suits once again with the hoods retracted.

  Sam deactivated his camouflage. “It’s good to see you two, but what about contacting you the way we arranged?”

  “Couldn’t wait for that. Somehow we think the Fleet is still on to us,” Terra said. “Thurman Conrad, It’s good to see you again although it’s been a while for me.”

  “Yeah, heard about your premature restoration and your out-of-dateness, a good turn of luck for you considering how popular your other version was. She was still a good woman, though, as I’m sure you’d like to know. I’m very glad it’s you. For a minute there I thought we were caught, and I really didn’t want to explain my last eight years to anyone I didn’t have to,” Conrad said, looking relieved now.

  “Me too. We won’t keep you here, Conrad. We need to get out of here soon. If you have someplace better to be, I suggest you go there, but I’m sorry I can’t say how long you’ll need to stay,” Terra said apologetically.

  Conrad waved her off. “Don’t worry about it, I know where to go, and I’ll hide out as long as I need to. If worse comes to worse, you’re not the only one with a single eight year old backup out there.”

  “Oh really, I didn’t know that. I presume then that there are a number of others in the same boat,” Terra probed.

  “Yes, but I won’t tell you who or how many. Don’t worry, though. They’re taken care of. We all have a place to go to ground. Sam, it’s been good working with you, but I should be on my way to rendezvous with my friends, and yours are obviously waiting to get out of here. Good luck,” Thurman said, extending his hand. “I hope it was worth it.”

  Sam shook the man’s hand firmly. “Believe me, Thurman, so do I.”

  Terra took his hand too. “Thank you, Mr. Conrad. I promise I’ll do everything I can to help you and your friends.”

  “Of course,” Thurman said. He nodded to Jeff and Ignus and then turned to leave. Ignus opened the port for him, and he flew back out into the shaft on his way to wherever it was that he and his fellow antimatter thieves were going to be hiding out.

  When he was gone, Sam turned to Jeff for an explanation. “What’s going on? You were supposed to wait for me on Mars.”

  “It turned out that we had an opportunity to get out of the dome unobserved, so we took it,” Jeff explained.

  “What opportunity?” Sam asked.

  “Fiona got sick and had to call for an ambulance. We just used it as an opportunity to sneak out,” Jeff said with a grin.

  “Is she all right?”

  “Of course, she’s fine. Just a case of food poisoning, nothing really dangerous. Terra was beside herself until we found that out just before we came to get you from the transport.”

  “Well, I’m glad to hear that at least,” Sam said. He hadn’t really gotten to know Fiona, but she seemed like a very nice person.

  “So where to?” Ignus asked.

  “Europa, apparently, but beyond that I’m not sure,” Sam said.

  “Do you have any idea who we should talk to when we get there?” Terra asked.

  Sam shrugged, “Only vaguely, but I’m sure my other version won’t leave us hanging. We seem to be following his bread crumbs according to plan.”

  “Well, then what are we waiting for? I’ll go get us space borne and then we’ll get out of here,” Ignus said. “Good to have you all aboard again. It’s much more exciting than flying priority packages.” He stepped in the lift column and was quickly out of sigh.

  Jeff clapping Sam on the shoulder and walking towards the lift column. “Good to have you back, Sam.” Sam and Terra followed. Soon they were on the couch waiting for Ignus to launch.

  “So how do you know we won’t be followed?” Sam asked.

  “We don’t. We’ll only know if the Powel is following us if they depart shortly after us, not that there’s much we can do if they are,” Terra admitted. It wasn’t very reassuring.

  “I’ve got clearance to depart. We’re fully fueled and ready. Darla’s calculating our trajectory to Europa. Terra, I hope you know people who can help me later because my flight plan has the belts listed as our destination, and I’d prefer to keep my license.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll clear it up later, Ignus,” Terra yelled up to him.

  A few seconds later they detached from the station and began to drift. Then Ignus touched off the thrusters and pushed them well away from the station before ramping up to full thrust.

  “I hope you didn’t get used to that wimpy Martian gravity too much. We’re going to thrust at one point three this trip, which will put us there in seven days,” Ignus called down.

  Sam felt like he was being crushed for a while; he could tell that Jeff and Terra were uncomfortable as well. It took about ten minutes for them all to acclimatize to it, and even then they weren’t anxious to get up from the couch.

  “So, Sam, why don’t you tell us about your adventure on the station?” Jeff asked and Sam began to recount the tale, but he left out a great many details that he only had Ralphie transmit to Terra and Jeff’s companions.