Gravitational Constantly: A Novella (9 page)

As I walked through the lobby doors of Futura, I couldn't help wondering if I'd be met by security or perhaps even the police. It'd been two days ago that the celebration in the tower had turned sour. I was sure that Sebastian would not forgive my insult. I had spent the next day nursing a bad hangover and lying low in my apartment. A knock at my door and a gaggle of police officers to haul me away for assault, that was what I expected. Yet no knock came, save for the pounding in my head. I thought about calling Jayce or Cara, but I didn't want to talk to them as much as they probably didn't want to talk to me. Launch day fell upon me with a strange sense of calmness.

When I arrived at the control tower and approached the elevator and security checkpoint, I braced myself for the inevitable outcome. The security personnel at the elevator were all new to me. I'd never seen any of them during my time at Futura. There were also twice as many of them than usual, and all wearing sidearms. It shouldn't have surprised me, but somehow it made the situation seem more real now. I scanned my badge then presented it to the guard closest to me. He was a man in his mid-thirties, athletic build, muscular, shaved head, chiseled face, and intimidating. I pegged him for ex-military, now working security for the private sector.

The light from the screen behind the desk flickered, and the two guards in the back studied the result. The man on the right pressed a button and the elevator light turned green and the doors opened. It wasn't until then did the big man in front of me allow my entrance by stepping to the side. A wave of relief washed over me, leaving me feeling almost lightheaded.

“Thank you,” I said and was in the elevator before they changed their mind.

The launch was being supervised from the control tower, which was at the very top floor of the newly constructed building. I pressed the button for the twelfth floor, moved back against the wall, and took a deep breath. For some reason, I was still on the security clearance list. I was sure that it had to be Jayce or Cara's doing.
Perhaps Sebastian had been so drunk he didn't remember what had happened?
That was doubtful, and in any case someone would have surely told him. I put it out of my mind and tried to steel myself for the events to come.

The twelfth floor was not my final destination. The control room lay six stories up, but the floors in between were only structural. Elevator music played softly as I ascended the building floor by floor. At the twelfth floor, the bell rung and the doors parted. I was met by a crowd of people trying to make their way to the service elevator on the other side of the hall. That service elevator would take me the rest of the way to the control room. The crowd was comprised of media members, Futura staff, and a large number of security, all of which were more heavily armed than those stationed below.

I started to make my way through the crowd, which didn't seem to be moving. Shoving and pushing my way to the front, I held my badge up to have a guard wave me forward and start to make a path for me. The cesspool of spectators behind me were shouting and demanding clearance to go up, but were not making any headway. My badge was placed on the scanner and again the guards looked back and forth between the screen and my face until they were satisfied.

“He's good,” the stocky, but beefy guard said to the giant ebony-skinned man blocking my path. His short, cropped beard may as well have been painted on. His hair was shorn short and did little to hide a long scar running down the side of his head. Battle-hardened men guarded these doors, and a sense of unease began to wrap its hand around my lower intestine and bowels.

The man ushered me through the metal detector, where I had to imitate the Vitruvian Man while they scanned me for weapons. When the men were satisfied with the scan, I entered the elevator alone. Greasy-haired, sweaty-faced men with ties too tight around their necks yelled and pointed at me, as to testify their own self-worth by dimensioning mine. No doubt some of them saw me and my doppelganger at the party the other night. One man with a fat face and little pig eyes was questioning the guards.

“That man is cleared to go up, be we are not? He assaulted the chairman's son at the celebration banquette two nights ago!”

Wordless, the man that looked to be in charge glanced back at me with dull eyes. I made a 'crazy' gesture with my hand pointing to my head and gave him a puzzled look. That brought some light to the man's eyes and a fraction of a smile to his lips. Denying people of things made this man's job sweet, and he took pleasure in it. “Looks that way, fat man,” said the guard with a certain grin of satisfaction on his face.

I hit the button and the doors slid closed to the circus outside. The elevator began a labored climb to the control room, which loomed an impressive eighteen stories above ground on the Moon, an engineering feat in itself. There was no music playing in this elevator, only the sound of cold steel sliding over cold steel, cables stretched tight, the tension audible. As I neared my stop, I noticed my perspiration. I was about to enter the nest of the cosmic eagle that would spread her wings and glide on the solar winds.

The elevator came to a screeching halt.
Just what I wanted, a noisy entrance,
I thought. The doors came open, and I was again confronted with more security. This time there were only two guards standing post to the entrance to the control room. A large plexiglass partition and steel sliding door lay between the elevator and control room. The door had a badge scanner in which I was free to scan myself in at this point, it seemed. Neither guard made any gesture of acknowledging my presence. Through the window I could see into the control room. Atop the room stood Sebastian and a handful of engineers, and Jayce. With some effort I moved to the door and scanned my badge. The door slid open and the energy of the room became palpable. A dull roar of conversation was carrying on between technicians and engineers, and radio chatter could be heard from several stations. No one had even seemed to notice that I'd slipped in. I lingered in the back of the room, taking in the spectacle and being in awe of a moment that I knew I'd likely never be a part of again.

The control room was simple in its design, clearly nothing aesthetic to it like the rest of Futura; it was built for a purpose and its décor was spartan to say the least. It reminded me of every science fiction movie I had ever seen. I was in dazzled by its computer consoles and flickering lights, its giant view screens on every wall, and terrified by its cold, stainless-steel surfaces that seemed to speak to the part of me that remembered this place from my childhood. There were technicians and engineers sitting at every console. No seat remained empty. All hands were on deck, it seemed.

I hadn't been there for more than five minutes before Jayce noticed me. His facial expression gave away his surprise, which immediately dissolved in distress.
He had hoped I wouldn't show
, I thought. Jayce leaned over and whispered something into Sebastian's ear, who was huddled around a console with a group of specialists. Sebastian craned his head around to scowl at me then waved the lab coats away and muttered something to Jayce. I waited in the back of the room until Jayce came to greet me.

“I'm glad you could make it,” Jayce said as he offered a handshake.

I extended the courtesy and shook his hand. “I'm glad to be here. I was sure that my access had been removed, but I was pleasantly surprised. Do I have you to thank for that?”

Jayce took a spot on the wall beside me and leaned against the cold, dull stainless-steel. “Not me, sport, Cara. It was Cara who convinced Sebastian to let you keep your badge. Not so easily though.”

“How about you? Did she have to convince you too?” the question seemed to take Jayce back. “I saw how you looked at me when I came in.”

“Hey, of course I want you here, I just thought it might complicate things and God knows we don't need any complications today.”

I let my head cool for a moment while I glanced around the room. The excitement was electrifying. Checklists were being ticked off, measurements read out, switches flipped, and hundreds of keystrokes logged from consoles all around the room. My gut was clenched and twisting again.

“You're right, I'm sorry. Thanks, Jayce. I'll stay back and keep my head down.”

Jayce's face lightened into one of his grand smiles. “That will keep the gray out of my hair.”

Just then the main view screen in the center of the room snapped to a shot of the Lens shuttle docked inside the gate. All of the connections between the gate and the master relay on the colony had been made. There was a tangle of conduit and cabling running from the surface to the gate. Thick bunches of cable connected to three areas of the gate, creating an uncanny image of Pandora's box sprouting a Medusa-like head of serpent hair. An undeniable sense of urgency drifted over the room like a dense fog.

“It's almost showtime,” Jayce said. “Just hang out here. I'll yell if I need you.” He gave me a wink and was off before I could say a word.

The flight director strolled down the main aisle, a cup of coffee in one hand and a twirling pen in the other. Stopping his twirl once in a while, he'd give the pen a few clicks and then set it in motion once again. He was a man in his early sixties, although he didn't look a day over fifty, with salt and pepper hair kept tight, cut into a flattop. His mustache was cropped to a neat and proper length as well, not too bushy or too thin. He wore thick black-framed glasses that gave him an authoritative, intellectual look. His white button down short-sleeve shirt, complete with pocket protector and a slew of spare pens, drove home the image. Jerome Reinz had been the flight director on every major flight from Earth since the
Tears of Jupiter
incident. There hadn't been any major ships lost since he took over. His record was flawless, and he had been the obvious choice to bring into Futura for this mission.

“Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we've got a schedule to keep and history to make,” Reinz said as he continued down the row of terminals and operators. “I want final check status. Give me numbers.”

One by one, operators at different consoles began to rattle off figures and the status of ship and gate systems alike.

“Fuel tanks reading maximum capacity and sealed.”

“Power flow from master relay to the gate is nominal.”

“All hatches have sealed on the shuttle. Atmosphere and pressure A-OK.”

“All primary cells on the shuttle are polarized, five minutes until we have auxiliary cells charged.”

“Cara, this is Flight Director Reinz, how you doing up there?”

A view screen snapped to an internal shot of the shuttle, which had been dubbed
Athena
, and there Cara sat working at her console, fully outfitted in her flight suit—a slender, almost form-fitting flight suit with padded cushion at the joints and metallic blue connecting rings for the torso, helmet, gloves, and boots. “I'm good, Jerry, but I'd be doing better if we were further along.”

“We're on schedule, Cara. Don't be in such a hurry to become legend. And you can call me Jerome at least. I'm old enough to be your daddy.”

That made Cara look up and smile at the screen. My stomach clenched once again, and my lack of breath was surprising. I could see her eyes moving side to side, searching the room over. Not sure who or what she was looking for, I raised my hand shyly and gave a little wave. I must have been hard to find from her view point, hidden away in the back of the room. Nevertheless, she spotted me and she kissed her gloved hand, gently put her lips to her fingers, and gave the slightest blow toward the camera. Several of the technicians and operators looked at each other, some blushing, wondering who the lucky man in the room was.

“Alright people, listen up.” Reinz had taken his spot at the center of the room with Sebastian, Jayce, and a few other senior staff. “We're all here because we know what we have to do. All we need to do now, is do it. I don't need to tell you that this is one of the most significant endeavors of mankind, or that the history books will record what happens here today …” I was perspiring from my underarms now. “The only thing I'm going to tell you is to do your job. You all know who I am. You know my record. I'll be damned if anything is going to tarnish that record on the most important flight in recent history. Do I make myself clear?” The room was in silent agreement. You could cut the tension with a knife. “Okay then, let's get it done! OPS, kick it off. Give me Go, No-Go.”

There was a short back and forth with the operators and the flight director and then a final confirmation from Cara. I heard the vibration of trillions of charged particles before I ever saw the flash. The docking clamps didn’t have time to release as the shuttle was catapulted through the concentric rings and rails of the gate, ripping the clamps free and sending them shooting into space in divergent paths. A blue-white supernova of light blinked in and flooded past the control tower. Through squinted eyelids and sunspot halos of vision, I never saw the shuttle depart. It hurdled through space faster than I ever imagined possible, and from the reaction to the flight crew, faster than they had calculated.

“Power surge has started a chain reaction back to the main relay!” shouted an engineer.